Akame ga Kill, The Second Time around
by Fizzyorpheus
Summary: As he witnesses the death of both Night Raid and Esdeath at the hands of the Prime Minister's deadly scheme, only to then die himself, Tatsumi is brought back to life the day before he sets off for the capital. Hopefully this time, he'll make the right choices. My own personal take on the story by whitedandelions (a dead fanfiction from 2014, so don't get your hopes up reading it)
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: The Second Chance**

Tatsumi collapsed to the floor, Incursio's armour cracked and disintegrated from him as his last remnants of stamina slowly drained away to nothing. Blood seeped and spurted from the hole in his chest, staining the beautiful locks of hair beneath him a deep red.

 _ **It didn't suit her...**_

His vision blurred by the stream of tears flowing down his cheeks as Tatsumi looked down at the woman beside him. He had barely enough strength left to place a shaking, bloodstained hand on her cheek, prompting a small, shaking smile from her as he brushed aside the hair masking her face.

 _ **She's so beautiful. Even now...**_

"Don't be sad Tatsumi," she smiled weakly, her voice barely a whisper, "I don't regret it, I was simply-"

"No," Tatsumi cut her off, "It's all wrong. This should never have- no, I should have-" he was stopped by her shaking hands reaching up for his face.

 _ **She looks so frail...**_

"That's why I loved you Tatsumi... You never broke, never changed no matter how much I tried... I would never have fallen so in love with you if... If you weren't..." She choked on her own words, and Tatsumi brought her closer into his arms.

Gazing down at her, the world seemed to fade away.

Nothing else mattered anymore as he stared down at her slowly dying body.

He had thought her invincible once, unbreakable. Hell, he wouldn't have been surprised if she turned out to be immortal. Even if Night Raid had succeeded, even if the rebellion won and all the wrongs in the world were put right, he was sure that Esdeath would simply walk away from it all unharmed, still wearing that cold, beautiful smile of hers.

 _ **But no longer...**_

In truth, deep down Tatsumi still hoped even to the end that she would change for the better, that she had agreed with him that night in the palace, which now felt like a lifetime ago.

A storm of emotions raged away in his heart. Tatsumi wished he had never held on to hope, wished he had just accepted reality and moved on with his life, wished that he never held on to hope long enough to realise that he loved her before he realised it was already too late.

It was over, everyone was gone. The Prime Minister had finally decided Esdeath's uses had run their course and turned on her, just as she had expected him to. Expectation alone, however, simply couldn't defend against his sheer cunning. After all, it was him who brought her to her teigu. Knowing exactly what she would do, he had already put in plans to remove her long before even then. The result? There wasn't even a chance to fight, to retaliate or escape before it was already over.

Nobody had even considered it, nobody could have, but her teigu took to the Prime Minister immediately.

Perhaps it was simply glad to be free, no longer overwhelmed and dominated by Esdeath's own unbreakable and insatiable bloodlust. Tatsumi thought about that for a moment, a sad chuckle escaped his lips before quickly dying out as he looked around at it all, and everything that had happened.

Night Raid was destroyed in seconds, only Tatsumi survived, but even his time was running out. The hole in his chest no longer gushed red, there was barely even a trickle. His only solace was the ice clinging to the wound, the cold chill gently numbing the thrumming pain coursing throughout his body.

"I never wanted it to end like this," Tatsumi admitted wistfully, as he continued caressing her cold, pale cheeks in a way which was nothing less than loving.

"All I wanted was to live in peace," he explained, "In a world where the rich don't abuse the poor, where girls in poverty weren't forced out of their home and sold away like toys, but it seems like the rich always get what they want, while the poor suffer for it."

"That isn't your fault Tatsumi, they aren't your burdens to bear," Esdeath said quietly, her voice even less of a whisper than before.

"Isn't it?" Tatsumi choked as his lungs filled with blood, "I should have realised it from the start, I shouldn't ever have left you, I should have been like Run and River, trying to change it all from the inside. The Revolution was always just a pipe-dream, I hate that I couldn't realise it."

"Tatsumi..." Esdeath whispered, and for the first time, Tatsumi saw tears in her cold, blue eyes.

 _ **Don't...**_

"I wish that- I wish I could just go back and make the right decision, because I-" Tatsumi choked on his words, his cheeks flushing slightly even despite the blood loss.

 _ **Really Tatsumi? You're getting flustered even now!?**_

Cursing himself, Tatsumi summoned his courage and whatever strength he had left in his broken and slowly dying body, before leaning forwards until he looked Esdeath in her eyes.

Suddenly, he dropped down to plant a kiss on her cold, pale face.

"I love you Esdeath, and I think I always have..." Tatsumi smiled.

"Th-thank you Tatsu..." Esdeath's tears finally broke from her eyes as they closed for the final time.

She was gone in seconds, but at least she left the world with a peaceful smile on her face, content in the knowledge that she would not pass from this world unloved by anyone.

As he watched her pass away in his arms, Tatsumi's smile faded away, before finally breaking down as a bitter, wrathful howl of rage erupted from him until the last moments of his life were completely spent.

Tatsumi fell silent. His roar dying out into the air until at last, like a puppet with its strings cut, collapsed to the ground beside the only woman he ever loved.

Everyone was gone and nothing would change...

Everything that they had ever fought for would be in vain...

Even his feelings which he had ignored for so long before finally admitting them, all of it would mean nothing, and so Tatsumi died before anything could be done about it.

 _ **Life was cruel.**_

If there was anything after death, Tatsumi hoped it would be a better hell than this...

 _ **But after all, life is cruel...**_

Tatsumi snapped back to reality, immediately noticing that he was no longer in the capital, and Esdeath was nowhere to be seen. Confused, he tried to stand and look around, only to find himself looking at the sky with his back to the ground, he soon realised that he had just managed to throw himself off the ground just from trying to stand. He had somehow regained most of his strength again, but how?

He felt like he was being watched, and so cautiously began looking around at his surroundings, through the trees, amongst the snow, after a few minutes the beginnings of a thought built up inside him. It all looked surprisingly familiar. He knew this place. Tatsumi could only stand there, frozen on the spot, simply trying to remember where this place that felt so familiar was before the realisation finally struck him like a lightning bolt.

"I'm... Home?" Tatsumi asked in disbelief, "How did I get here? When did I get here?"

A thousand questions rushed through his mind, quickly giving way to confusion. He was still alive, but no longer in the capital, instead he had somehow came back to his home village through reasons he couldn't even hope to fathom.

When he had finally came back to his senses again, he found that he was nearing the lake a few miles from his village and so decided it may be best to dress his wound before it became infected.

"I'm not gonna come back from the brink of death just to die from an infection," he said to himself half-jokingly.

 _ **What do you mean by "brink" of death?**_

Without hesitation, Tatsumi began to gingerly take off his shirt to check his chest and clean the wound but fell back in shock when he saw his reflection in the water. There was nothing. No wound, no blood and no pain when he pressed his fingers against the flesh, which had until recently been housing a rather sizeable chunk of ice where his heart used to be, or rather, is? Tatsumi sighed, he was getting confused again. After another few moments of disbelief, he then moved back to the lake to check for the second time, that was when he noticed something else.

"I look... Younger?" He gasped.

No scars marked his body, as if nothing had happened at all since he left the village, and all that remained of it all was the tired, sad expression on his face, which somehow looked younger. It looked as if nothing had happened to him since he left the village.

 _ **"WELL, THAT'S BECAUSE IT HASN'T!"**_ An angry voice boomed from behind him.

Tatsumi leapt back into the lake to face whoever was behind him, only to find no-one was there. He couldn't sense the presence of anyone nearby but still felt as if he was being watched _very_ closely. After standing in a lake staring into the tree's for several long moments, that Tatsumi finally took in what the voice had actually said.

"Nothing has happened since I left the village? What about Night Raid, what about Es-" he couldn't say her name, and as he saw the tears streaming down his face at the thought of her, he heard the voice once more.

"Finally, it seems you're actually able to listen! Well, before you get ahead of yourself, literally, why don't you try calling out your teigu? Actually, while you're at it, why don't you get out of that lake too?" The voice cackled.

It felt dark, that was the only way he could think to describe it - not evil or cruel in any particular way - it was just dark as if it didn't belong in the world. It was unnatural, like a demon or something similar perhaps?

Tatsumi stood there for a moment, thinking about whether or not the voice was a trap or an enemy simply mocking him, before finally deciding that he should probably summon Incursio, it felt like the wisest choice either way. Tatsumi took a deep breath.

" _INCURSIO_!" Tatsumi screamed forth his teigu, the reassuring sensation of it enveloping him with nigh-impenetrable armour spread throughout his body and Tatsumi sighed in relief, at least one thing hadn't...

Tatsumi could only stand there in disbelief as he looked down at his body in the water. The reflection that looked back was like something out of his nightmares. Incursio, his precious teigu, which was given to him from the dying arms of Bulat, was no longer the valiant white he remembered.

Instead, it was black like the void and seemed to absorb all light, leaving only a sickly black sheen in its place. The familiar white coat around his shoulders was gone, replaced by a pitch-black cape that looked ragged and faded. Broken skulls took the form of pauldrons, whilst heavy chains streamed forth from the eyesockets, wrapping tightly around his arms all the way down to his gauntlets, which now ended in almost claw-like fingertips.

Looking up, Tatsumi realised that he couldn't see his face. It was hidden behind a ruined hood through which no light could pass, yet his vision remained clear, in fact, it was better than ever before. Even his weapon had changed, the crimson halberd that saved his life many times over had become a scythe of unbelievable proportions, towering over him even while wearing the armour.

He looked like the reaper himself.

"Pretty awesome right?" The voice seemed to be pleased with something, Tatsumi only felt disgust at this new look however, it wasn't like him in the slightest. Still, a weapon was a weapon, he thought, and so brandished it towards the direction of the voice, only to find a small black cloud hovering in the air in its place.

"Greetings _little_ one," it said, two red lights appearing in the centre as it spoke.

Tatsumi looked back to his reflection, realising the cloud just made a short joke. "So you have a sense of humour then?" Tatsumi remarked, his expression stern and emotionless as he stared coldly down at the cloud of shadows coming towards him.

"Someone has to, I suppose, didn't you have anything important to ask me, rather than just giving me sass?" Its voice seemed strained, like it was holding itself back, even the armour he wore seemed to radiate the same anger. It was then Tatsumi made the connection.

"You did this?" He couldn't help but whisper to himself in disbelief, but it seemed that the cloud-thing had heard him anyway.

"You mean did I send you back in time? Yes, I did. If you're asking about the armour, then yes, that I also did. You're welcome, by the way, there was a nasty fate awaiting you in the next life you know?" The voice casually remarked, and in truth it sounded surprisingly matter-of-fact about his situation.

Well, at least he knew how he got here, Tatsumi mused, the cloud-thing didn't really have a reason to lie to him, other than for its own amusement of course, but he was fairly sure that wasn't the case.

"If that's true, then why? Why would you help me, why didn't you send anyone else back instead? Like Esdeath or Akame? They're much stronger than I am right now!" Tatsumi responded angrily, prepared to strike at the cloud's answer, why didn't it save Esdeath instead of him?

"I don't really care to answer that last question, but as for the first one... Let's be simple and say that the fat man winning is a _huge_ no-no for me, enough for me to rip out your soul and throwing it back into the past." The cloud-creature explained rather casually.

"Now believe me when I say this is stretching my limits a little, so here's a friendly little warning, _don't_ fuck this up! If you do, I will _personally_ guarantee that you'll wish you just died the first time around." The cloud didn't seem like it was going to continue, and it certainly didn't sound intimidated by Tatsumi's threats in the slightest.

"What am I supposed to do then?!" Tatsumi screamed back, he was getting tired of the cloud's glibness, not to mention its infuriatingly half-assed answers and threats.

"Isn't it obvious?" The cloud laughed, "Just get stronger! Don't hang around a weak group like Night Raid for a start, I'm sure you'll figure that one out easy enough, you won't get anywhere with them that's for certain."

Tatsumi winced when the cloud called them weak, but he couldn't bring himself to answer back, it certainly had a point. Most of the time he spent with them was spent cooking in the kitchen or getting food to cook in the kitchen rather than training. None of them were truly serious about destroying the empire. Even if they were, they were too few and far too laid-back to have a chance of success, to win against the might of the empire.

"At least you can get that through your skull, I'm not here to coddle you or inflame your self-righteous ego." The voice informed him, "I didn't bring you back so you can make the same mistake twice, if you _do_ join night raid, I will personally have you massacre them all with your bare hands, that I can promise you." The voice was serious, its previously cocky and jesting nature evaporated away, leaving only a dark tone that scared Tatsumi more than anything he had felt before.

The cloud faded away without another word, leaving Tatsumi alone with his new armour. The armour seemed to have a mind of its own, as Tatsumi found himself walking out the lake and onto dry land. So Night Raid wasn't an option, so where should he go, what should he do? He needed to get stronger before he got to the capital at least. As he reached the shoreline, Tatsumi found himself able to move again. It seemed that the armour wasn't completely under his control like a normal teigu, as it's little stunt of forcing Tatsumi out of the lake had proven, but it still responded when he called for it.

"Hey," Tatsumi called out to his _teigu,_ and a shadow appeared over his hand, like the cloud-thing he spoke to before, just smaller. "Can you talk or something?" He asked, before feeling a presence slowly appear in his mind. It didn't speak exactly, but Tatsumi could understand it well enough to communicate.

"What do I call you?" he asked, "I never caught your name."

Tatsumi awaited for a response, but nothing came, the armour remained silent, the presence in his mind was silent and unresponsive, Tatsumi was puzzled until there was a message that echoed through his mind...

"Mu holds itself coldly aloof from both the intellect and the imagination. Try as it might, reasoning cannot gain even a toehold on Mu. In fact, trying to solve Mu rationally, we are told by the masters, is like 'trying to smash one's fist through an iron wall. "

"Right...So... Your name is Mu?" Tatsumi guessed, completely at a loss for what he just heard.

The presence in his mind simply remained quiet, yet the armour seemed to radiate with power at its mention. It was then Tatsumi noticed that the ground he stood on had turned to sand, the air became silent, and all colour faded out of the world around him. Tatsumi began to panic as the world died around him, the scythe in his hands began to gleam.

"Enough! It's time you told me what you can do!" Tatsumi commanded, snapping back to reality, and the world began to fade back into colour once more. The presence felt different, however, and simply mirrored Tatsumi's image back into his mind. His new teigu seemed to speak in riddles of a sort and it took a while before Tatsumi could grasp the teigu's message.

"So you can do as much as I need you to? Is that it?" Tatsumi asked again, still unable to comprehend the message the presence was trying to send him.

The mysterious teigu simply repeated the same message again, but Tatsumi had already guessed it would do so. It seemed that he wouldn't be given the answers, only conditions and vague hints to guide him for now.

Tatsumi could only sigh to himself, thinking 'this is going to be a pain, I wish I just had Incursio around, then things would be simple'. The presence became impatient, flashing the black cloud that brought him back, with the message "Just get stronger!" Echoing in his mind.

By now the Sun had all but disappeared behind the treeline, leaving Tatsumi in the dark with his thoughts. He remained there for a few moments before deciding that he should try returning to the village for now, as he realised that both his friends were still alive as well, and he should stop them from going to the capital before it's too late.

Esdeath was safe for now at least, so all he had to do was become stronger. Before it was too late.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

* * *

When Tatsumi finally reached his village, he already had a plan in mind, the only issue was how he was going to go about it. He decided against using Mu in order to give him time to think, although he could have just walked slowly while wearing it, he was simply too focused on creating a plan to realise it until he got to the border of the village, already shivering fiercely from the cold and the snow.

Upon seeing the lights of his village, however, the cold seemed to disappear, and tears welled up in his eyes as he saw the faces of the chief and the other villagers smiling happily, hope gleaming in their eyes. A hope for a better future and Tatsumi could only pray he could deliver it.

As Tatsumi entered the village border and headed for the village centre, he caught the attention of several of his fellow villagers, concerned and slightly confused as to why and how he was walking around the snow without even a shirt on. There was nothing to be done about it, however, as the said shirt was currently frozen solid after being soaked in lake water when he took it off to clean his now non-existent wound.

After another couple minutes of walking through the snowy village, Tatsumi could finally see his destination, the village chief's cabin in the centre of the village. Tatsumi knocked on the door before announcing himself as he entered, the village community was like an extended family, everyone knew everyone, so simply walking into someone's home wasn't a particularly unusual thing to do.

The village chief had already come home and was stoking the flames in the fireplace when Tatsumi entered through his front door. "Tatsumi! How are you, my boy?" The old man asked, still focused on getting his fire going again, a necessity in the northern villages. Tatsumi sat down on the nearest chair by the window, "I'm just glad to be back in the village" he replied, as he studied his hand regaining it's colour, wondering why he thought going topless in the snow was a good idea in the first place.

The chief made a confused expression, and once the fire became strong enough to leave alone, he turned to grab a nearby coat and sat down next to Tatsumi, listening intently to what he had to say. The boy was clearly troubled by something, he thought, as he had never come to see him before for anything like this.

"So what's bothering you, my boy?" The chief asked, handing Tatsumi a warm coat, considering his strange lack of attire.

"I'm not even sure where to start," Tatsumi answered glumly, in truth his mind was already raving and ranting about everything that happened since he left the village, but the chief would just think him mad from fever and the cold if he told it all at once, so he kept it to himself for now.

"You've only been gone since this morning Tatsumi, and you don't look injured or tired, what happened to make you want to come here of all places, you usually go to your friends," the chief looked worried, but had no idea what could be the matter, as he had no injuries to speak of, and the only unusual thing he could see was that he had walked back without the clothes he left with.

Tatsumi's face stiffened when the chief mentioned his friends, "that's what I'm here to talk to you about Chief, I don't want Sayo and Ieyasu to go to the capital." The boy didn't look like he had argued or had a fight with them if he did it would have shown on his face, instead all the chief could see was desperation.

"I don't understand what you're talking about Tatsumi, you were all so excited about going just this morning! What happened? What aren't you telling me Tatsumi?" The chief simply asked again, something was definitely wrong with the boy, that much he knew for certain now.

Tatsumi remained silent, he would need to take a different approach then. "Just tell me what I need to know, I don't need to know everything that happened, just help me understand the basics," the chief pleaded with him, desperately trying to win him over.

That seemed to do the trick, Tatsumi's face softened slightly and a thoughtful expression appeared on his face as if he was trying to put it into words, and a sense of relief flowed through the chief's heart as Tatsumi finally spoke once again.

"I... I was by the lake, I know I had a wound on my chest, so I moved to the lake to clean it out, but when I got to the water and took off my shirt to clean it and treat it, it was gone. Like it never happened." Tatsumi paused.

That wasn't all of it though, and it was shown on Tatsumi's face, he looked like he had more to say, so the chief simply remained silent and listened carefully with a kind smile on his face.

"Not only that, but my clothes were different, there were no signs of me ever being injured at all. When I looked back into the lake, that was when I heard it. A dark voice called out from behind me, but when I turned to look, there was nothing there, but that feeling of being watched didn't go away." He would have continued if not for the chief holding up a hand, motioning for him to pause for a moment, he came back a few moments later with hot drinks and a small hard-biscuit snack.

"Slow down, Tatsumi, I'm in no rush to hear what you have to say, so take your time," the Chief simply smiled and sat back down with a mug in hand, waiting for Tatsumi to continue once again.

Tatsumi took a deep breath, took a sip from the mug the Chief handed to him and continued his story. "When the voice came back again, I could see it. A black cloud with red eyes. I almost couldn't believe it, until it started speaking again, showing me things. Images in my mind, and what would happen if we all left the village together," Tatsumi paled as the images of his fallen friends revisited his mind, Sayo's mangled and mutilated body, Ieyasu dying in his arms, black spots all over his body and that sudden impact of knowing that his friends would never return. He had a chance to change that now, he had a chance to save his friends from that monstrous family, and the easiest step to doing that would be stopping them from going altogether.

The Chief simply looked at Tatsumi, he could tell by his face that he wasn't lying, but he couldn't bring himself to believe his story, a black cloud that speaks shouldn't be possible. Certain high-level danger beasts could certainly do amazing things, that much he knew, but telling the future?

"As much as it pains me to say it Tatsumi, I'm afraid I can't bring myself to believe you with just your words al-" he couldn't believe it, Tatsumi was gone, and in his place was death.

The Chief fell off his chair and immediately began to crawl towards the wall, watching that thing constantly, before that thing on the chair finally spoke.

"It gave me this armour before it left, but I'm not sure as to what I should do next, aside from stopping my friends going to the capital," the monster was gone, and in its place was Tatsumi once again, looking a little guilty for scaring the poor man, but he was definitely a lot happier than he looked earlier.

The Chief could only stand there struck dumb by what he had just seen, a suit of pitch black armour appearing out of nowhere, only to disappear just as quickly, and that scythe, it was terrible to behold. It took the man more than a few deep breaths to regain his usual kind composure, now that he knew it was still just Tatsumi beneath it all.

"Well, that gave me quite a scare there Tatsumi," the Chief chuckled, bringing a new light to the boy's face.

"Sorry Chief," Tatsumi laughed, his plan had worked, the chief had come to terms with Tatsumi's teigu and would finally be able to believe him, hopefully, enough to help convince his friends to stay before it's too late. While they certainly want to help save the village and would go to any lengths to do it, he knew his friends would see immediately how wrong the empire is, and if the chance arose, they would most likely end up joining Night Raid, and that he couldn't allow.

"Will you help me convince them to stay? I'm not sure how to handle them on my own without insulting them or... Using other means to do so," Tatsumi pleaded.

The chief looked deep in thought for a while, the drinks in front of them had already cooled completely by the time he had come to a conclusion.

"I believe that if you show them how strong that armour is, explain the dangers of the empire and the like, they would see the reason behind letting you go alone," the Chief nodded as if to confirm his theory. Tatsumi couldn't help but breath a sigh of relief as he heard those words, the presence of Mu in his mind seemed to agree with the Chief also.

Tomorrow was the deadline, so now time was of the essence, Ieyasu and Sayo would be back from hunting anytime now, and Tatsumi made his way to the centre of the village, accompanied by the chief. It was time to shatter their dreams he supposed, but he'd rather that than having them tortured, only to be dead in the ground and left to rot.

They were running late, but that was expected if they weren't back by sundown. Tatsumi wondered what the hold-up could have been, perhaps Ieyasu had snapped a branch and sent the prey scurrying through the woods before Sayo could take the shot, he always was the clumsy one, he remembered, stifling a laugh.

Soon after the last of the lanterns in the village were finished being lit, two shadows appeared from the path, and Tatsumi's heart leapt when he saw his friends alive and well after so long. He almost couldn't hold back the tears as he saw Sayo's long black hair, and Ieyasu's impish grin, simply overjoyed to be able to speak with them again, but the presence in his mind reminded him that to them, he had only been gone for a day, not for the months upon months that he had missed them for.

The village chief waved them both over, both of them sharing a look of confusion as they approached the Chief and Tatsumi, who lead them back to the Chief's cabin before sitting down and telling them the news.

"What do you mean we're not going to the Capital?!" Ieyasu yelled, Sayo didn't look happy about it either, though Ieyasu already got there first.

"Now, now, I understand completely, but there's a good reason that has come to light as to why you simply cannot go. I would have agreed with you before hearing of it myself, so I want you two to simply listen for now, and see what you make of it yourselves," the old man calmly replied, looking over to Tatsumi.

"It's no longer an option for us all to work for the Empire, it's in a state of absolute chaos, and between the rebellion and the corruption, we'd be dead within a week," Tatsumi said coldly, not even giving the two of them a chance to speak before continuing.

"We would get to the Capital easy enough, that much I'm sure of, and becoming inducted into the military would be a cinch, but where do you think the new recruits go? They get set on guard duty for the nobles. Why do you think that is?" Tatsumi's goal was to make them think beyond just working for the Empire, and it seemed to be working, as Sayo seemed to grasp where he was going with this.

"Because there's a constant demand for them," she answered, hitting it right on the mark.

"That's right, the reason being a group known as Night Raid, a band of assassins who target the nobility constantly, killing all who they deem evil and corrupt, that includes those new recruits fresh from enlisting." Tatsumi retained his cold expression, simply allowing the two of them to take it in, but they didn't look entirely convinced just yet, so it looked like they had to fully comprehend the true dangers of the Capital. Tatsumi looked towards the Chief, who had far more experience talking people down, who nodded in response.

Calling upon the power of Mu the black armour enveloped him, and their expressions of anger turned to one of fear immediately, at least it was good for something, Tatsumi thought.

"This is what makes Night Raid so effective and deadly, they all possess something of equal power to this, and they are far more experienced and trained than any one of us," Tatsumi let that realisation sink in for a moment before falling silent completely, the armour dissipating into the air once more.

Silence descended into the room, as Ieyasu and Sayo shared looks of pure disbelief and awe. They realised that they were completely outclassed by Tatsumi when he donned that armour, and couldn't imagine how strong a member of Night Raid could be. It was then that the Chief decided to break the silence.

"Do the two of you understand now? After seeing this power, how could any of us even think to let you go to that place?" The chief's tone was solemn and serious, more so than any of them had heard him before.

Ieyasu looked back at Tatsumi, and then the Chief, before finally speaking up once more. "So what will we do about the village? We can't just do nothing and hope this Night Raid thing blows over, the village would be long gone by then."

The Chief just waved his question off," you know the answer to that already Ieyasu, there's no other option and you know it."

Sayo just remained there silently looking through the window, out into the village and up into the night sky, everything had been decided and being stubborn wouldn't change that. She simply looked at Tatsumi and smiled sadly as he leant back in his chair sighing. She would have asked where he got that armour, but she didn't care at the moment, she just wanted to relax and enjoy the time the three of them had left.

"Shall we go and train then, Tatsumi?" Sayo asked, perking herself up slightly. Tatsumi looked almost panicked for a moment, before realising she was simply wanting their last night together to end on a happy note, rather than in solemn silence.

"You're on Sayo!" Tatsumi called as he ran out the door, leaving the Chief and a bewildered Ieyasu behind.

"You'd best catch up to them Ieyasu, or they'll leave you behind!" The Chief laughed heartily, as he watched Ieyasu stumble as he raced out of the Cabin and into the cold, night air.

After a long run in the bitter cold, Sayo and Tatsumi finally reached the hut on top of the hill where they used to train with their old mercenary teacher. Ieyasu arrived just as they had both started their stretches, and he was covered in snow and leaves, 'he must have tripped on his way up here' Tatsumi thought, and he couldn't help but laugh out loud, Sayo couldn't help herself either it seemed. He had missed this, the feeling of simple, blissfully ignorant joy that he wished would never end.

"So, what are we gonna do?" asked Ieyasu.

"Well, I want to test out this new weapon of mine, and get a better feel for it," Tatsumi answered.

Sayo and Ieyasu looked worried for a moment, probably concerned that they couldn't put up enough of a fight to help their friend improve his skills.

"What weapon do you have?" Sayo asked.

"It's a scythe actually," Tatsumi replied.

"Well, at least it matches your armour!" Ieyasu laughed.

A scythe, in all honesty, wasn't a particularly effective weapon, it was never meant to be used for combat, but _Mu's_ scythe was another beast entirely, a hulking monstrosity that just seeped with bloodlust and fury. It was more than enough to cleave through ranks of armoured knights with a blood-chilling ease. The simple fact that it was so rarely used as a weapon was probably a bonus, as most, if not all opponents would be unaccustomed to defending against such a weapon. While the presence in his mind seemed to wish for Tatsumi to brandish his teigu's weapon, he decided against it, opting to pick a simple farming scythe instead, just to get used to the style of using it, and to minimise the risk to his friends.

First up to face Tatsumi was Ieyasu and his axe, who came towards him in a rapid flurry of swings and feints, while Tatsumi struggled to dodge and parry at all, and when it became obvious that the fight was completely one-sided, Sayo called the victor. Ieyasu simply grinned and began bragging to himself, while Tatsumi cursed, sitting down to study the scythe in his hands, and the best possible way to wield it.

"How would you guys wield this thing?" Tatsumi asked his friends, allowing them to study it and practise with it themselves, the three of them sat down inside the old hut and began brainstorming techniques they would use to fight. After a few hours of practice and image training, it looked like Sayo was the one to reach the answer first, she always did have a strong mind, Tatsumi thought to himself.

"You should probably try to just get the blade behind the enemy as quickly as possible, pulling the blade back into the enemy to cut him down, aiming for the legs of arms would be the easiest method, while using the snath of the scythe in the same was as a staff to disorient your enemies as well," she mused out loud, her eyes focused intently on the tang, wondering if it could be effectively used in some way.

"You could probably get away with a wild spinning motion as well," Ieyasu added, "it could be used as much as for the defence as it could for the offensive," both of them had hit the mark.

As if that didn't help enough, even the presence in his mind showed Tatsumi various images and stances with the scythe

, and soon he had a good idea of how to wield his new _favourite_ weapon.

"Ok! Shall we go again? I think I've got it, kind of," Tatsumi requested, his eyes focused and ready.

Ieyasu stood back up and took his usual stance, while Tatsumi took his own. Both of them had to use opposing fighting styles, while Ieyasu needed to close the distance quickly, Tatsumi needed to maintain it. The moment there was a shift in the wind Ieyasu began his attack, dashing forward with impressive speed, but Tatsumi was already reaching for him and attempting to hook around Ieyasu's shoulder. Ieyasu managed to hook his axe around the scythe's beard, however, and blocked Tatsumi's swing before it was complete. Tatsumi managed to respond with a brutal strike with the scythe's snath, forcing Ieyasu to stumble back from the rapid surprise attack, and back within range of the scythe's blade once again.

"It's getting interesting," Ieyasu coughed, wiping the blood from his nose as he looked back up to Tatsumi, who was wearing a smile from ear to ear as if he had already won and was revelling in his victory.

Tatsumi couldn't hold back a laugh as his grin grew wider, the presence in his mind showing him various options and openings to take, seemingly enjoying the combat. He might just be starting to like this thing, it felt a lot like the halberd of Incursio but was a lot more challenging to wield and defend against.

I wonder what Esdeath would make of it? Tatsumi thought for a moment, but he was interrupted yet again by his opponent.

He knew what Ieyasu would do, however.

Ieyasu charged once again, expecting the scythe blade to swing for his arms again, but instead, Tatsumi took the scythe lower, towards Ieyasu's legs, knocking them out from underneath him with the blunted edge of the chine. Ieyasu was on the floor, and Tatsumi was already mid-way between another strike, stopping just short of taking off his opponents head. The tables had been turned, and Tatsumi was crowned the victor.

"Oh, how the tables have turned eh, Ieyasu?" Tatsumi beamed, proud of himself for already besting Ieyasu with such a new weapon, in much the same way Ieyasu was gloating before when he won hands down.

"Best of three," Ieyasu growled.

"You're on!" Tatsumi laughed.

Sayo just shook her head and began to practice her archery in the moonlight, as the two idiots scrapped it out to see who was the dumbest out of them both.

* * *

More Authors notes:

Well, what did we think of Sayo and Ieyasu?

What did we think of the dialogue and stuff, I'm not really great at this kind of stuff, with like, "doing" words and the like, I don't want it to sound too basic, but I can't think of anything when I'm writing it, it just feels like I'm saying thought, asked and said a lot AND IT PISSES ME OFF!

Anyway, that's my mini rant over, leave your reviews at the door, and I will spam you with replies after I finish reading them.

So long!


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

* * *

It was in the small hours of the morning when Tatsumi woke up, he hadn't got anywhere near enough sleep, instead, he had stayed awake sparring with Ieyasu until even the birds had fallen silent for the night.

He didn't feel like getting up just yet, so simply lay there for a while, watching the dust floating along in the cracks of sunlight which were breaking through the curtains and into his room. When he was finally beginning to feel like himself again, he drew the grey curtains back and let the golden sunlight enter his room.

It was blinding at first, but his eyes quickly adjusted to it easily enough, and so Tatsumi just stood there, taking it all in. He was finally back in his village again, even despite everything that happened, he had made it back home.

Tatsumi gazed around his room, breathing it all back in. As he bathed in the feeling of nostalgia and memory, he also began to feel pangs of embarrassment as he looked around at the state of his room. To put it lightly, it was a complete mess, as old clothes were piled up everywhere, while weapons littered practically every single surface he could see, with the walls almost plastered in sketches and notes all on fighting techniques. He could almost see his past self, scurrying around his room practising swinging the swords, axes and staves that were all over the room. After their teacher died a couple years ago, leaving Tatsumi and the others with only the bare basics of combat, forcing them to use their own wits to help them improve their skills. This was the result.

As Tatsumi was brought back to the past, he remembered how full of hope he was. He had so much of it once before it was all taken away. Before he was left with that cold void in his heart that took its place.

Tatsumi found himself shaking, not from sorrow or despair, but rage. A rage against the machine that was the empire, no, against the corruption that was killing it. In truth, the empire was already dead, no more than a corpse pulled along by strings, and all those who lived there would be sickened along with it.

That family was proof of this, they were probably all good people once, but became fallen and twisted over time, becoming no more than human trash. They were all beyond saving, thought Tatsumi, he would never forgive them, no matter how many times he would come back. All Tatsumi had to sooth his seething wrath was the knowledge that he'd soon be hearing all about Night Raid butchering them when he finally got there if he didn't get to them first of course.

The presence in his mind seemed rather impartial to it, though Tatsumi could feel it may not be the wisest move since it brought him closer to Night Raid, it was how he joined them in the first place after all.

Even despite his doubts, however, Tatsumi still found himself picturing what horrors he could inflict upon that blonde bitch before she would finally give in to it all. It brought him peace. It was like a calming wave washed over him as he imagined her screams in his ears and her blood washing over his hands.

"Perhaps this is how Esdeath feels, I wonder..." Tatsumi mused as he watched his trembling hands with a confusing mixture of interest and disgust. As he moved on from the darker parts of his mind, Tatsumi brought himself back to his first day at the Capital, and all the things that went wrong.

He remembered everything, from when he was thrown out of the enrollment office, to Leone scamming him for all he was worth, leaving him stranded in the cold on the side of the road, where he was found and taken in by that worthless family.

How she could so easily look him in the eyes, and even drag him around shopping, all the while butchering Sayo for so petty and pathetic a reason. The mere idea of it ignited that dark flame in his heart once more, the sight of Ieyasu in the latest stages of that horrid disease dying in his arms, and the flayed body of his childhood friend burned into his mind and soul. That cold hatred that he felt towards that creature in the guise of a young girl. All of it fuelled that dark flame burning in his heart.

It was then that the presence intervened, snuffing out the fire in his heart, replacing it with the one thing Tatsumi thought he had lost completely. Hope. Tatsumi was reminded of how that brutal fate had not come to pass, it had been averted, and now everything had a chance of being made right aga

Tatsumi regained his self-control, although he was left uncertain as to what he wanted to do before it was time to leave and head for the Capital. He didn't have to wait long, however, as a loud rumbling broke the silence of the room. Tatsumi laughed.

"Guess I'll decide after some breakfast then," he chuckled, as he began to get dressed and make his way out the door and into the village, towards the Inn.

The Inn itself wasn't much to look at, but it was large enough - and warm enough - for all the villagers to relax, boast about their catches or kills, all while enjoying a hot meal and a cold, foaming beer. In truth, the Inn wasn't as much an Inn as it was simply one large dining hall, but that was the name they all gave it anyway.

As Tatsumi stepped through the village streets, he noticed how empty it felt, as if everyone had just straight-up disappeared overnight. he even looked inside some of the windows as he passed, but all of them were empty, even all the chairs and tables had disappeared.

Regardless, Tatsumi carried on, past the empty homes and run-down fences, until finally, he reached the Inn. He tried to peer through the windows, but it was pitch black inside and he couldn't see a thing.

Tatsumi was worried, the entire village was gone, only he remained, was this all a cruel joke or was it something else?

As Tatsumi summoned his courage and forced the heavy oak doors open, the vision in front of him brought tears to his eyes.

The entire village had gathered in that one space, tables and chairs had been carefully placed to accommodate them all, and a great cheer echoed throughout the village as everyone roared out the name of their village's hero.

They really had gone all out, it may have been nothing compared to even the smallest of the empires celebrations, but it still blew Tatsumi away regardless. For a brief moment, he was almost concerned for the village's well-being in the hard times to come as he saw the sheer amount of food set out on the tables, not to mention the number of beer kegs that had been stacked up in the back. The cost of the beer alone would be enough for the village to feast for weeks.

They truly were putting their complete faith in him, and he would be certain to prove them right, he had to.

As Tatsumi could only stare wide-eyed at the scene in front of him, a couple of figures amidst the sea of raised fists and tankards caught his eyes. It was Ieyasu and Sayo, they were sat with the chief and waved him over.

Ieyasu was already helping himself to a whole leg of mutton which had been for the whole table, but no-one seemed to mind, while Sayo simply smiled and waved. The Chief nodded to Tatsumi, before getting up and celebrating with the others, to give Tatsumi some space alone with his friends.

Tatsumi weaved his way through the chaos of the crowds, dodging the clumsy swings and spills of the villagers, raising their mugs as he passed. After finally managing to make it to the other side of the hall, without gaining half a dozen stains in the process, Tatsumi slumped down between his friends, which he instantly regretted.

The moment his rear hit the stool, Tatsumi was 'treated' to one of Ieyasu's infuriating bragging sprees.

Their duels had carried on into the night, only ending after the 41st match, which Tatsumi had just barely lost, 20 to Ieyasu's 21. Though barely was indeed the word to use, as the both of them sported quite a vast array of bruises and cuts from the last bout alone.

The last fight was far more brutal than the first, as neither party had the energy left to control their blows, leaving Ieyasu with two black eyes, a busted lip and a broken nose, amongst other things. Ieyasu may say that he was able to beat him, but Tatsumi had made sure to make him pay for it.

In the end, what it came down to was simple experience, while Tatsumi was the better fighter, Ieyasu had the advantage of experience. While Tatsumi had only just begun to wield a scythe for the first time, Ieyasu was using an axe, where he excelled. While he did struggle in other areas such as with bows, or swords and the like, when Ieyasu had an axe, he could easily be Tatsumi's equal in practically every area of combat. It was a close match, that much Tatsumi couldn't deny.

In fact, Tatsumi even briefly wondered if Ieyasu could ever be as strong as Deidara if he had the same weapon before he was knocked out entirely by Ieyasu's final slash.

"Oh, how the tables have turned eh, Tatsumi?" Ieyasu grinned like an imp as he threw Tatsumi's words from last night right back at him. How Ieyasu could manage to smile so easily with so many injuries to his face Tatsumi could never know, Ieyasu was tough that was for sure.

"I suppose, or maybe you just got lucky, maybe I was holding back on that last one, you did look pretty beat up, after all, so I may have felt sorry for you," Tatsumi laughed back, eager to see Ieyasu blow up as he took away his friends final victory from him.

Ieyasu's smile cracked and looked almost ready to straight-up demand another match to settle it all, just as Tatsumi wanted, as a challenging glare flared up over his usually cocky demeanour.

It almost looked as if Tatsumi's scheme had worked, as tension filled the air around them as they stared both stared the other down. That was, until Ieyasu started laughing, turned away and continued savaging his leg of mutton, he had seen through it.

"I think I'll hold onto that win, for now, Tatsumi you can stew over it while you're off saving our skins!" Ieyasu cackled, somehow looking like some villain from a children's story Tatsumi had read before as a kid.

Tatsumi wondered if Ieyasu was capable at all of being serious, or at least not managing to make himself look like a complete tool. The Ieyasu from the past almost completely erased by the shining image of that grinning idiot before him.

Tatsumi pretended to sound insulted, and so glared back at his friend before finally speaking back.

"Yeah? Well, don't choke on it while I'm off saving your sorry ass!" Tatsumi said as he slapped Ieyasu on his back, almost making him drop his lunch over the floor.

"Speaking of which", Tatsumi thought, as he reached over to the giant pile of meat stacked on the plate beside him.

It didn't actually taste half bad, it must have been some kind of danger beast, going by its odd colour, Tatsumi mused as he bit into it absentmindedly.

While the boys were busy being themselves, Say had simply remained quietly on the sidelines, content to simply leave the two fools arguing with each other. That was until Ieyasu tried to steal Tatsumi's last piece of danger beast, and a brawl ensued with Tatsumi grabbing Ieyasu by his broken nose, making him look like some kind of pig, squealing in pain.

That was the last straw, as Sayo immediately began shaking from merely holding back her laughter, turning away to try and calm down before she broke entirely.

"They are definitely far too alike, and both too dumb to even notice it," she thought, as a quiet gasp escaped her lips.

Noticing that their friend had suddenly started shaking, had turned away and was quietly gasping for air, the two brawlers broke away from their fight. In their minds, she could be ill or choking, and had a shared look of concern over their faces, while in reality, they were simply both just utterly clueless.

It was then Tatsumi felt something or rather heard something. The presence in his mind seemed disquiet, at first Tatsumi was worried that something was wrong, but instead, he was struck senseless as the realisation dawned on him.

It wasn't warning him of any danger, it wasn't warning him of anything.

It was just... Laughing.

Tatsumi was stunned as he heard the voice of the presence in his mind for the first time. It was almost indescribable, it was silent, yet when it spoke it seemed to drown out all else around him, in a tone very similar to the cloud-thing that spoke to him earlier. Except it was laughing.

Tatsumi felt a connection to this voice, unlike anything he had known before. It was nothing like when he was enveloped by Incursio, which was his raw emotion calling forth and synchronising with the tyrant within. This was something far more, and Tatsumi could tell that this Mu was not just a soulless machine or a mindless weapon. It was truly alive, or something like it.

"I can hear you?" Tatsumi unknowingly thought out loud, completely unaware that both Sayo and Ieyasu could hear him.

Indeed, it seemed as though the presence had in fact been speaking to him from the start, but only fragments, if anything got through to him, to put it simply, Tatsumi just wasn't listening to it, or rather he was unable to. Despite all the major differences, Tatsumi had assumed Mu to be much the same as Incursio, and so he unknowingly blocked Mu out of his mind, shackling it away with his presumptions. However, for whatever reason, amidst all the noise and cheer of the celebration, Tatsumi finally began to hear it, though he wasn't sure what had happened to make it so. Regardless of the cause, however, Tatsumi could at last hear and listen to his new and mysterious companion-in-arms.

Meanwhile, as Tatsumi was deep in his own thoughts and oblivious to the world around him, Ieyasu and Sayo seemed more than a little disturbed by their friend's odd behaviour. With the village being in the north, amidst the snow and tundra, the villagers had little in the way of time to spare on prayer and other religious practices. However, they still held their beliefs close to their hearts, even more so in these times of hardship, in fact.

Their suspicions weren't overly surprising to be fair, after all, who wouldn't be concerned when their dearest friend could suddenly conjure up armour and look like death itself, and then suddenly starts hearing voices in their heads? So even with the brief explanation of the amazing weapons known as teigu, it was still enough to be suspect in the extreme.

However, as Tatsumi appeared to snap back into reality, and saw the looks of concern on the faces of his friends, he gave a quiet chuckle. Tatsumi realised that he had been speaking out loud, and while he wasn't sure how much his friends heard, he knew it was enough to make them worry while he was distracted by his new 'partner'.

"Tell your friend Sayo that at least I got the joke, even if the other two never will," the presence called out as it chuckled away. Tatsumi didn't have a clue what it was talking about but decided to give it a shot anyway.

"Uh, right... Sayo, it told me to tell you that at least it got the joke, even if the others never will, whatever that means..." Tatsumi shrugged, an awkward smile on his face in a pathetic attempt to reassure her.

An awkward silence descended over the table, with Ieyasu at a loss for words, which Tatsumi could never have thought possible, and Sayo slowly starting that strange shaking again. Eventually, Tatsumi couldn't take the silence and dived into the plate, desperately trying to take his mind off it all. When he looked back up, however, Tatsumi noticed that Ieyasu was no longer staring at him, but at Sayo instead, it was at that moment that Sayo lost her composure entirely.

"What is it with you today Sayo!?" Tatsumi laughed, simply glad he had something to change the subject.

"Yeah... There's never an in-between with you is there? You'll either be laughing like a maniac at something the rest of can never see, or quietly watching on the sidelines trying to look cool and composed or something!" Ieyasu chimed in, it seemed that he had already forgotten completely about Tatsumi's strange behaviour, as he was waving his leg of mutton around and pointing at Sayo with it. Tatsumi didn't know whether to pity his simple-minded friend or envy him.

"I guess that's just how she's always been, eh Ieyasu?" Tatsumi chimed in, the girl always was a mystery to him that's for sure, he almost couldn't tell why she hung around them all the time to be honest, not that he minded in the slightest, however.

Though as he thought about it, he never could guess what she was thinking. Sayo was nothing like any woman he had met before, or since. Even Mine and her constant complaining would make more sense to him than Sayo ever could.

Tatsumi even recalled how in the end he had simply given up trying to figure out the enigma that was Sayo, simply choosing to enjoy her company and the laughs they all shared as a result. It was almost infuriating how even after so long, he could still barely understand her at all.

Ieyasu shrugged in agreement, "I guess we'll just never know..." Ieyasu went quiet for a moment before a look of realisation flashed over his face.

"Oh yeah, almost forgot, Tatsumi I wanted to ask you about something!" Ieyasu almost yelled into his ear.

"Something we wanted to ask you," Sayo cut in, looking like she had regained her usual composure.

"What about?" Tatsumi asked as he cocked an eyebrow, expecting him to ask something pointless about how he could get a teigu or something equally insane.

Ieyasu surprised him, however, for once sounding rational, a thing he had almost never done in his life.

"What are you gonna do when you get to the Capital? Join the army? I was just thinking that it might not be the best idea since you told us about those Night Raid guys."

Sayo nodded in agreement.

"What will you do then? It's like you said, they're all more experienced than you, and they'll outnumber you anyway, so what will you do?" She asked Tatsumi, her voice thick with concern, like an overprotective mother, Tatsumi thought.

To be honest, Tatsumi wasn't entirely sure of that himself. He knew what not to do, but in the way of other ideas, he didn't have a great deal. His goal was singular, ensure that the prime minister does not succeed, and that meant protecting Esdeath, so Night Raid was completely out of the question.

While seeking out Esdeath was the quickest way of going about this and was at the forefront of his mind, Tatsumi knew her, and she would be just as quick to kill him as even speak to him as he was now. Tatsumi had to get stronger, or he would never get back to her.

The presence in his mind seemed to have a few ideas for that, however, and an image of the Capital's Arena flashed into his thoughts.

"This is when you can meet your Esdeath, Tatsumi, all you need to do is get stronger and do what you did last time. The real issue is getting the money for your village, even more so after all this, but unfortunately, I have nothing for you, other than joining the guard or perhaps even the arena?" the presence suggested.

Tatsumi wracked his brain for answers.

So, I just have to get stronger, and make money at the same time... Isn't there a place for that in the empire? It's a corrupt hellhole for the poor, but it was a haven for the greedy and the powerful, surely there must be something.

Tatsumi's mind was ablaze with ideas and suggestions that wouldn't include joining the army, but it was all mainly underground work that came with just as much risk as joining the army, if not more-so.

Tatsumi's head began aching, his brain working overtime to piece together anything from his memories and experiences with Night Raid, all to think about how he could make his way in the Capital. He already knew that simply enlisting would get him nowhere fast as he still looked like a kid, he would never be allowed to advance for years, and that was if he didn't get rejected at the door.

"I-" Tatsumi was interrupted by the presence in his mind.

"What's this about an officer, his name is Ogre or something?" The presence suggested as it sifted through Tatsumi's memories relating to the guard and the army.

Realisation struck through Tatsumi like a lightning bolt. He recalled how he used the excuse of wanting to join the military to get to his target. He already knew where to find him, he knew his routine like the back of his hand, and he was already more than skilled enough to beat him in single combat. It was almost perfect until he recalled how he was outright rejected.

"He outright rejected me, he isn't an option," Tastumi retorted, there was no way that he was going that far just to join the guard.

"What if you let me do the talking?" Mu pressed

The very idea of it made Tatsumi sick to his core, however, and he wracked his brain over every other possible option, yet all he could come up with was that, or finding Esdeath in the North and taking his chances (which were slim to none) while she presided over the complete annihilation of the Northern Kingdom, and the genocide of its 400,000 people.

It didn't feel like much of a choice, either he had to cosy up to a corrupt officer who could get him what he wanted or assist in the complete destruction of an entire country and it's people.

"If it helps, you won't be the one doing it, I'm not going to be doing everything for you though, once you're in..." Mu's point was made abundantly clear, it was here to assist Tatsumi, not to do his tasks for him.

While it was certainly a tempting offer, and he'd be able to do either with little in the way of consequences, he still couldn't bring himself to do it. Tatsumi sighed, finally giving in, "I know a guy, he isn't a good man, but he could get me into the guard, bypassing the whole enlisting process, and once I'm in from there I can rise up the ranks pretty quickly. I don't like it, but at least I'd make enough to tide the village over until something better can come along."

Once again his friends shared that same look again, they weren't happy or convinced by his answer. Not only had he admitted to still planning on joining the guard, but he was even suddenly saying he knew a guy out of the blue.

It wasn't even close to comforting or reassuring, but it was more than just that. The answer was just so... Strange. Questions raced through both their minds:

How did he find this guy?

When did he find this guy?

What did he do to get him to agree?

Once again, Tatsumi found himself unable to answer their questions and concerns.

"I know how it sounds, believe me when I say I'm the one most surprised by all this. This is the only option I've got though, the others are either illegal in the extreme, and are only more likely to lead me to Night Raid, or simply leave me locked in a dead end unable to help anyone." Tatsumi explained it to them in as solemn and calm a manner as he could. Tatsumi didn't mention the last option, he didn't want that thought on their minds.

Ieyasu sighed, "I'm not gonna ask you about this contact you've found, I doubt I'd want to know or even understand for that matter. I trust you, Tatsumi, remember that. So don't do something stupid and get yourself killed."

Ieyasu had already realised it was their only option from the start, they had very few skills beyond fighting it was true. But after hearing about those monster weapons in the empire, how could he simply let his friend go without at least saying a word?

He wished he could help Tatsumi find a better way, but he already knew the truth, it was just a matter of accepting it, albeit begrudgingly.

Sayo however, seemed adamant about him not joining the guard, at least while Night Raid was around.

"I still don't agree! You don't have to join the guard, you do have other skills than fighting to make a living you know?" She looked ready to continue, but Ieyasu was the one to cut her off.

"If you're going to tell him to try saving the village through blacksmithing Sayo, I will punch you in the face," he warned.

Sayo was grasping at straws and she knew it, but she just couldn't back down, and Ieyasu could tell what she was thinking and stopped her from speaking yet again.

"Just put your faith in him Sayo, or are you going to try and make him regret everything he's doing for your own selfish pride?" challenging her yet again.

Sayo looked away, talked down and with nothing left to say, she picked up a loaf of bread and slowly picked away at it. Completely defeated.

Tatsumi smiled at her, feeling a pang of guilt stab his heart.

"It won't be so bad, it's like we all said, I'll get to the Capital and blow 'em away with my skills! Promotion will be a cinch, just you wait!" Taking a large bite, he gave her a thumbs up along with the cheesiest grin he could manage with a mouth full of danger beast meat.

While she still seemed dejected, Sayo smiled back and gave Tatsumi a small hug

"Promise?" She asked, almost sounding as if she was begging him.

"Promise!" Tatsumi grinned, an even bigger smile breaking out on his face that almost put Ieyasu's to shame.

The rest of the festivities carried on well into the late afternoon, finally finishing when most of the villagers had drunk themselves into submission, and were passed out from one end of the hall to the other. It seemed a good enough time to start packing, Tatsumi thought, and the three childhood friends were soon back outside heading back to Tatsumi's home.

"Hey, at least it's cleaner than my room!" Ieyasu laughed, looking over the complete mess of weapons and notes scattered over every available surface.

"How do you actually live in here?" Sayo asked, wide-eyed at the sheer chaos that was the state of Tatsumi's home.

Tatsumi scratched the back of his head, laughing nervously, in truth he didn't know either.

After finally managing to pick what he needed from the mess of his room, an act that took far more time than it should have, Tatsumi was finally able to set off on his quest to save the village.

"Well, that's the last of it," Tatsumi sighed as he sifted through the various notes that had popped back up after their search, laughing at his sketchy handwriting and childish doodles.

"Are you sure?" Sayo asked, wiping her forehead with a sleeve that hadn't been caked in dust and cobwebs, a rather annoyed expression on her face as she looked at the state of her clothes.

Tatsumi smiled as he began looking over the state of his pack, finally nodding when it appeared that everything was in order.

"Ok then, we'll take you to the edges of the village before we'll see you off," Sayo smiled, almost managing to look happy.

Tatsumi gave Sayo a quick hug before nodding to Ieyasu and racing out the door, their one last contest.

They passed the old blacksmith's hut on the hill, where they had spent most of their childhood, swinging swords, dreaming of becoming heroes of legend, like in the fairy tales they listened to as they fell asleep.

Nobody spoke a word, no-one felt the need to. Everything that had to be said was already decided in the Inn or in Tatsumi's home. All that remained for Tatsumi to do was say farewell to his home for the second time in his life, except this time he was going it alone.

Well, not exactly alone, as the presence of Mu in his mind makes perfectly clear, a loud "Ah-hem!" echoing through his mind. Regardless, Tatsumi was now focused entirely on the long journey ahead of him.

By the time that the three of them reached the edges of the village, where the homes and frozen farms gave way to dense woods caked in snow and ice, the sun was already hanging low in the sky above them.

"It won't be a problem as long as you're wearing the armour" Mu insisted.

When Tatsumi tested it out for a moment, only summoning the helmet, he noticed it was indeed clear as day, albeit slightly faded in colour. While the armour's powers wouldn't be needed for another few hours, as the Sunlight would be more than enough light for him to make decent headway anyway, Mu suggested that it might not be a bad idea to train using the armour along the way.

It appeared that, much like Incursio, using Mu was draining. In fact, it was far more draining to use it than Incursio had ever been, and Tatsumi as he was now, would barely be able to keep it up forcefully for no more than a few minutes before it became completely unbearable.

As Tatsumi considered the suggestion offered to him, his mind backtracked to when the three of them had just set off on their journey, only to be attacked by night bandits within the first week, becoming separated and leading them to their horrific fates. The memories of that night burned away in Tatsumi's heart and brought him to doubt the wisdom of completely tiring himself out before the ambush that awaited him down the road.

"I don't want to end up dead from a bunch of pathetic weaklings before I even pass the starting line" Tatsumi explained to Mu in his mind.

"Not to worry, Tatsumi, I am more than capable of helping you out in a pinch. If we are attacked while you are drained, I am able to summon myself to defend you, the only issue would be you would gain nothing from it," Mu warned him.

The reassurance he felt from Mu's promise calmed him, and he figured that training on his way to the capital wasn't a bad idea, as long as he didn't take too long it wouldn't be an issue.

The journey itself would take him around a week, going by the last time, though if he took training into account and his use of Mu as he walked, that seven could easily become ten days or even two weeks. The supplies he had in his pack would last him a little over a week, he'd have to hunt along the way to make up for when he ran out, but other than that he was more than ready.

As the three of them finally reached the edge of the village, where the fields gave way to dense woodlands, Tatsumi looked back one last time, recalling the last time he saw his home. He felt his eyes welling up slightly as he took it all in, he'd definitely come back when he could, he just couldn't tell when that would be.

"Hey, don't burst into tears on us Tatsumi!" Ieyasu snickered, but his cocky smirk soon gave way to a friendly smile. "Make us proud man, we'll all still be here, waiting to hear all about it when you get back you know."

Tatsumi laughed, and gave his friend his best salute, "Yes sir!" Causing Sayo to start up again.

"Oh for the love of God just get going already before I split my sides laughing!" Motioning for him to shoo, her usually warm smile replaced by an impish grin that put Ieysasu's to shame.

"Looks like the whole lot of you are alike, after all," Mu chuckled.

As Tatsumi picked up his bag and sword, the rest of the village - that wasn't still passed out - had come to wish him good luck and say their farewells.

The Chief was the first to greet him, handing him the wooden deity figure that had saved him from Akame's blade on that dark night so long ago. The rest of the villagers soon followed, each offering their prayers and whatever advice they had to share, it was a far more emotional sending off than he remembered, or even dreamt for, perhaps it was due to him going by himself rather than with Sayo and Ieyasu.

"Perhaps they thought you'd be lonely all by yourself in the Capital, and decided to at least give you a fond farewell to give you the strength to carry on?" Mu suggested, sensing his thoughts and confusion over what caused all this.

The idea certainly made sense, and Tatsumi couldn't help but agree with his companion as it touched his heart. He would have been content enough with merely the knowledge that his friends would live on, safe along with the rest of his village, but this was more than anything he could have wished for. Tatsumi could only feel grateful for this new chance, as he had already erased his first and greatest regret from his past life.

"Thank you," Tatsumi cried, as he bowed in true gratitude for the creature that had brought him back. Tears ran freely down his face, but not from sadness, but from honest gratitude the likes he had never felt before.

Never before in his life had he ever felt so indebted to someone, a debt that could never be repaid, perhaps that was how River felt he wondered, recalling the old general who brought down Bulat, taking his own life in the process.

At the time, Tatsumi felt nothing but hatred and disdain for what he saw as a broken man, but now, perhaps he felt something akin to understanding.

At that moment, Tatsumi felt alone, for the first time since he arrived here, no that wasn't it. Mu seemed to be distant, its presence in his mind faded away until Tatsumi could barely feel it.

"Mu?" Tatsumi called, finding himself unable to sense the presence in his mind at all, nor was he able to summon forth Mu's armour and scythe.

Tatsumi was alone.

Moments passed, which turned into minutes, as each second became even more maddening than the last. Tatsumi could only stand there, frozen within his own mind, which now felt like an immense, empty abyss.

The villagers could only look on as their hero froze in place, completely unresponsive to their calls and cries.

After several more minutes had passed, everyone waiting for Tatsumi to snap back into reality, fearful of getting too close just in case something had truly gone wrong.

Just as Tatsumi began to cave to the madness of being trapped in his own mind, and unable to escape, the presence returned in a powerful blast that seemed to banish the dark emptiness of Tatsumi's mind.

Not only did the presence bring a blinding light to the darkness of his mind, Tatsumi also felt a power coursing through his body. He felt hot, almost painfully so, the heat spreading through his arms, legs, to his fingers and toes.

His entire body felt tense, every muscle clenched tightly as though they were all struck by a thousand lightning bolts at once. A strange tearing sound could be heard from within his body, as power surged through his body and into every fibre of his being.

"A little gift, Tatsumi" Mu spoke, at last, its voice actually sounding warm, the dark tones almost vanishing completely.

"What is this?" Tatsumi gasped, almost unable to breathe. it felt like his lungs were being crushed by his own muscles tightening around them, though Mu didn't seem concerned.

Instead, the sensation only grew stronger, as it began to spread even further into his body, deep into his bones, even reaching into his heart and into his lungs.

Every part of him felt like it was being ripped apart, crushed and broken, only to be remade and reknitted over and over again, but surprisingly, there was no pain, only a pressure that eased over time.

It was then Tatsumi realised what was happening to him, Mu was literally giving him a literal full body workout, the most rigorous in his entire life, and it was all over the course of mere seconds.

Another voice echoed into his mind, though it was nowhere near as friendly or warm as Mu.

"We liked what we saw Tatsumi, think of it as a reward for your heartfelt gratitude... My friend!"

"You! You're that cloud from before! You're giving me even more help?" Tatsumi was almost speechless.

"What else could these beings do?" Tatsumi couldn't even dare himself to think.

"Thanks for remembering, I guess... I was a little touched I suppose, at your heartfelt thanks for my 'help'. In fact, I almost felt bad about sending you back as weak as you are, so here I am again! I'm giving you more options to work with here! So do feel free to thank me again, by the way, I might just start getting used to this you know?" The voice laughed again, it even somehow managing to sound remotely friendly in the process, despite its utterly alien tone.

The Cloud-thing continued.

"Though, I do have to say... I'm not too fond of being called cloud-thing. I suppose it's my fault though, I didn't really tell you my name, after all, personally, I like the name Orcus, so from now on, well you get the idea..."

The voice faded from Tatsumi's mind, leaving only Mu and a very puzzled Tatsumi, who was currently trying to figure out what had just happened exactly.

Silence descended once again in Tatsumi's mind. When he snapped back to reality once more, he first saw the looks on the faces of his village, and once he looked down, he instantly knew what expression he was wearing.

Silence descended once more, the moment Orcus left Tatsumi's mind, so too did the tearing and ripping sounds that came from within his body. Tatsumi then snapped back into reality, finding himself once more able to move at will. When he first saw the expressions on the faces of his fellow villagers, Tatsumi could guess what he looked like. Looking down, he soon found himself wearing that exact same expression himself.

The body he had just a moment ago had disappeared and was no more, in its place was another beast entirely.

The repeated breaking and mending of every bone in his body forced him to become taller, the constant tearing and mending of his muscles and ligaments made them stronger than ever, while he had only buffed up slightly, the actual power inside them was incredible.

His body showed the results of decades worth of training that should have destroyed his body entirely, yet he hadn't even aged a day.

"Truly, a gift this was indeed", Tatsumi thought as he studied his hands, they still looked mostly the same, yet the power held within one hand alone would dwarf that which an average man would contain in his entire body.

Tatsumi could hardly imagine the level of power in his hands, let alone his entire arm, or even his full body, and when he added in the power of Mu, Tatsumi could only grin with glee. This could open up so many avenues for him, becoming more than a match for anyone besides the true masters, such as Budo, or Esdeath and Akame. If he had the strength now, then all he needed was the experience.

"Uh, Tatsumi, care to explain what just happened?" Ieyasu yelled, snapping Tatsumi back into reality once again.

Damn.

Tatsumi began to feel a cold sweat building on his back as his thoughts slowed to a halt and his mind went blank, leaving him completely unable to answer his questions at all.

Mu could only sigh at how bad its host was at quick thinking.

Tatsumi gasped as he felt Mu envelop his body, and realised he couldn't move an inch, or at all within the body of armour that now covered him.

"It's my doing," it spoke, at last, surprising both the villagers and Tatsumi, as he realised it was using his voice to speak.

"Tatsumi? No wait, you're-" Sayo was cut off by the armour raising its hand, telling her to wait until it was finished.

"Tatsumi as he was before, was too weak to wield me at my full potential, yet parameters were met which allowed me to change this unfortunate situation, I shall not go into detail, as I do not feel the need to. That is all, so I will leave you now with your friend once again, goodbye." The armour waved as it disintegrated away, leaving nothing but a stunned Tatsumi before a crowd of equally stunned villagers.

Tatsumi sighed, at least he didn't have to worry about that anymore he thought, trying to calm himself down after realising Mu could manhandle him at pretty much any time it deemed necessary.

"I suppose I should thank you Mu, though I must admit it was rather terrifying to have no control over my own actions," Tatsumi shuddered as countless worst-case scenarios popped into his mind one after the other.

"Don't mention it Tatsumi, and don't worry so much, I'll leave you to your own devices almost all of the time, I promise I'll only step in when it's absolutely necessary for me to do so," Mu replied happily, and if Tatsumi could see its face, he would expect it to be smiling at him right about now.

"Well, I am sorry that I couldn't be the one to explain that to you, but it insisted on being the one to tell you, sorry if I ended up scaring any of you too much," Tatsumi smiled and bowed in apology to his friends and fellow villagers who he viewed and loved as though they were his own family.

The villagers seemed to have come back to their senses, noticing that the death-like armour was gone, and a not-so-little Tatsumi in its place smiling away while bowing down in apology. It was safe to say that everyone was feeling a little embarrassed after their respective displays, and soon a great laughter could be heard echoing through the woods for miles around the village.

With the sounds of his people's laughter ringing in his ears, Tatsumi couldn't have hoped for a better send-off as he stepped once again on the road to the Capital. With his newfound power, courtesy of his seemingly all-powerful patron, Tatsumi's mind was overflowing with new possibilities, so much so that he didn't even realise that he had donned his armour once again as he dashed down the old dirt path at full speed.

"Tatsumi, where are you going to go?" Mu's presence echoed out into his mind.

Tatsumi wasn't sure of that himself, his mind was completely at odds with what it should be doing, did he want to go North to Esdeath, or continue on towards the Capital?

Mu simply laughed at him as Tatsumi just kept running down the road, it wouldn't even take him a couple hours to reach the capital at this rate, let alone a full week.

"Looks like you've already decided on your course to me, Tatsumi," Mu chuckled. Tatsumi only grew faster, until he was little more than a black flash across the bleak white winterscape.

Tatsumi's Journey had finally begun.

* * *

Authors notes:

Well, my head hurts after all this. This took me all week and took up pretty much all of my weekends to look it over properly so I'm pretty proud of it all so far. If you want to make any suggestions to the plot so far, that is just fine by me! Anyway, I'm gonna give myself a week off, so the next chapter will probably be out sometime next month, in about two weeks at most though I'll probably get bored and do something before then.

ANYWAY!

What did we all think of Tatsumi's super convenient power up bs? Or the plan involving Ogre, or finding Esdeath? So many options!


	4. Chapter 4

_**Another**_ "quick" Author's note:

I know, but just hear me out ok?

 _So_... Here we are! I'm finally back for reals this time! Mostly anyway, so rejoice!

I cannot tell you how gruelling this year has been for me and the family, going beyond being unable to upload or even connect to the internet*.

*Which, I might add, appears to really have it in for me as the moment I upload the update promising it to be all ok by the end of last month the broadband provider shuts off our package and the delivery for the next one gets delayed... But fear not! With the last of my might 4G, I managed to upload this to you! Be grateful!*

As things stand I have only really chewed my way through Chapter 4, as I have not been capable of connecting to the web via my PC for the past week, which is vital for my grammar and spell checking, since word can't seem to use proper British language despite what it says on the tin, so to speak.

What I'm trying to say is that I know it's probably too late to say sorry, but I'm still working on uploading and if you're even remotely interested in my writings you should pay close attention to your email over the month. I might surprise you! You never know!

Oh yes, and on another note, this is the new and improved chapter 4! It's a lot closer to what I wanted it to be rather than that mish-mash of nonsense that was my last piece of uploaded work. I'm not going to take it down though, I'm going to leave it up as a kind of game. Try and see if you can get into my head where I want to take the story, what everything means, I like to make really complex gestures in my writing that maybe only I can ever know. Leave some guesses in the comments so I can see who is mad enough to see where I'm taking this!

That's all from me for now so, for now, I hope you enjoy the read!

 **Chapter 4: A Trip Through the Woods**

Darkness fell over the forest floor, the pale light of the moon hidden behind the tree line as it hung low in the night sky. It was a beautiful night. The very picture of serenity, but beneath the silent curtain of snow and ice, hidden away amongst branch and shadow a storm was raging. A storm leaving nothing but destruction and ruin in its wake.

The trees were torn from the ground, shattering into a hail of splinters while monstrous clouds of snow and dirt were thrown up into the air as the ground below was carved open. Nothing could stand in its way, leaving only a path of violence and destruction.

It was a horrific scar upon a world of pristine ice and snow that stretched on for miles, it only ceased when Tatsumi's grinding halt, at last, came to a sudden and earthshattering close. He came crashing down in an impact so great that it sent shockwaves and tremors powerful enough to scour clean the surrounding area of all life. A wall of splintered trees and frozen earth that laid waste to all before it burst forth like an eruption from where Tatsumi had landed, leaving nothing but a ring of destruction which only grew larger as the debris carried by the blast added to the wave of destruction.

Tatsumi lay at the centre, no less broken than the world around him even with the protection of the armour still surrounding him. Still somewhat conscious, Tatsumi worked to regain his senses. Pain wracked his body, but at the very least he could tell he had stopped moving. Immediately he rushed to release the black death trap that he called his armour before anything else could happen, watching in what was almost certainly a sense of relief as the midnight black plates shifted back into the shadows which bore them, the skulls seeped back into the darkness with them and the chains quickly followed, leaving Tatsumi alone in the dark of the night.

Perhaps the only silver lining of this situation was the fact that with the snow and trees no longer hiding the light of the moon Tatsumi could at least see the world around him. That was, however, quite literally the only good thing to come of this, as Tatsumi watched the world around him rapidly fading in and out of darkness, which could only mean one thing.

While the pain was wracking Tatsumi's entire body, the thrumming pain of his mind was by far the most pronounced as the blood swelled in his brain. Tatsumi suddenly found himself staring at the snow, what thin layer that had fallen while he had been sat there anyhow and Tatsumi could only look on in horror as the pristine white below him began turning an unnerving shade of red.

In a fit of panic and with what little coherence he could muster, Tatsumi brought an unsteady hand to his face, it was even more so when it came back thick with red.

He was bleeding.

Heavily.

Tatsumi was barely able to keep his body from collapsing into the quickly building layer of snow beneath him while simply being on his knees, yet somehow, he had managed to drag himself towards what appeared to be an uprooted tree which through some miracle of nature hadn't shattered upon his impact.

With the last remnants of his strength quickly fading, Tatsumi, at last, reached the tree, the snow now lay an inch thick off the ground, not that there was much Tatsumi could do about it.

What happened next was perhaps yet another miracle of nature as Tatsumi, even with the last vestiges of his strength drained in its entirety, somehow managed to drag himself atop the fallen tree. Dull pain gripped his chest shortly after, however, as his body weight now rested squarely on his chest. Tatsumi knew immediately from the fall how much damage he had received, suffering at least a dozen breakages, 19 complete fractures, 13 incomplete fractures and god knows how much of his body was internally haemorrhaging. The crash itself, however, was a different story entirely. With the sheer amount of pain-numbing any hope of further analysis, not that it could really escalate that much further without killing him outright anyhow and if nothing else, Tatsumi could take some solace in that.

That, and the fact that he wouldn't be suffering for much longer, judging by the way the world dimmed and faded further away with each passing second, and with it, so too did the pain ebb and flow away from him as well.

His vision fading rapidly, Tatsumi took what little time he had left to look up towards the night sky that the once dense, woodlands hid from view, but now lay revealed by the giant crater he himself had created.

It was beautiful, even with his failing eyes the stunning vision of the full moon lying high in the sky and surrounded by stars made all the brighter by his lack of focus began to bring a tear to Tatsumi's eye.

"So there was a bright side to all this, after all," Tatsumi thought to himself as he continued to look up towards the sky. It also meant that he could guess at how long he had been falling for. He was already well into the night, meaning that he had been falling for hours at least since he had waved a teary-eyed farewell to his beloved family and friends before setting off into the cold embrace of the night.

Once again Tatsumi found himself bearing the full weight of his entire village upon his shoulders, except this time he also found the weight of the Empire itself along with it. A number of souls beyond count were all depending on him to make the right choices, to do the right thing all the time, every time. The sheer weight of it all should have been enough to drive Tatsumi insane, but then again, he had already been driven far beyond such trivial things in the past, this time he was simply determined to see it through.

As things stood, there was no room for failure in Tatsumi's heart.

However...

Determination alone simply wouldn't be enough, as Tatsumi so thoroughly realised the instant he found himself unable to control the power flowing through his body. His augmented body combined with the raw power of his armour was just too much, far beyond anything Tatsumi could ever have hoped to compensate for. It simply wasn't possible for a human mind to process the reality of the situation fast enough to adjust.

As such, even the slightest turn or bend in the road had thrown him hopelessly off-course, sending him quite literally flying into - and subsequently through - everything that found itself in his way.

"I think you should count yourself lucky Tatsumi, it's nothing short of a miracle that you didn't break your neck after a stunt like that," Mu said, finally speaking at last, although its voice was quiet and shaky.

It was clear that it was just as taxed as Tatsumi was broken and bleeding, but it wasn't wrong though, considering the scale of the crash itself. It was certainly true that Tatsumi was relatively unharmed, although that was little comfort to Tatsumi, as simply being a blood paste on the forest floor was starting to feel like a blissful escape compared to the agony he was enduring right this second.

Right now, however, it was all Tatsumi could do to simply keep himself from slumping off the toppled tree and collapsing into the cold, blood-stained snow below. It was a good thing too, considering his condition, as with the crippling amount of blood loss and the icy touch of the snow, falling off would be a bonafide death-sentence.

Not that it would really make much of a difference, however, as despite being more powerful than he had ever thought possible, it would mean nothing if something found him in this condition now. He could probably get cut down by just about anything that made its home in the area, although it was rather unlikely that anything would even approach the crater in the first place.

Tatsumi prayed for that to be the case, but there wasn't much else he could do about it if it wasn't. Regardless he quickly dashed that line of thinking and attempted to fill his mind with distractions, eventually landing on weapons, or more specifically: Mu.

While Mu may have been similar in some ways to Incursio, by comparison, Tatsumi considered his new armour to be far stronger. To him, it was an unstoppable torrent of power that never ceased or waned, but it wasn't just a difference in raw power. No, it was so much more, from the combat styles to the weapons, coupled with the ability to alter his body and even the very way it gave him its power. Mu was at once a similar, yet fundamentally different beast.

Mu's armour forced its power onto him, essentially injecting Tatsumi's body with an overwhelming energy that forced him to move and act at levels far beyond his own not-inconsiderable limits. It was a crude but effective method, but certainly one not without its drawbacks, while Incursio, in comparison, simply allowed Tatsumi to draw it out as he wished. It didn't push him beyond his limits unless he forced it to evolve, and like all Teigu, it's strength depended on the user. In short, it was a more elegant weapon, perfectly designed and balanced, while Mu, on the other hand, was far more volatile in its nature, with a single mistake nearly killing him as a result.

"Seems like we still have some work to do before we can really get started saving the world," Mu remarked, but it quickly fell silent again as Tatsumi began coughing up blood from his lungs.

"Perhaps you should take a breather and rest for a bit, even I don't feel too good after all that, so I can only guess how you're feeling right about now with a cracked skull and more than several ribs poking where they shouldn't," Mu advised worriedly as Tatsumi dragged the rest of his body over the top of the fallen tree, his legs and arms hanging limply over the sides.

Tatsumi couldn't have agreed more, or at least he would have if his brain didn't feel like it could escape out through his ears at any given moment. As things stood, Tatsumi could barely register Mu was even speaking, let alone follow what it was saying.

It was all he could do to merely drag himself atop the fallen log, hoping against hope that this condition would wear off and quickly as he watched his blood pooling on the ground. The vision of red spreading across the snow was the last thing he saw before that too was swallowed by the encroaching darkness.

"I'll see if there's anything I can do here in the meantime, perhaps he can..." Mu trailed off as it realised Tatsumi wasn't even able to follow what it was saying, already collapsed on top of the uprooted tree and dead to the world, it may as well have been talking to itself at this point.

"Ah. Sleep well then... Partner," Mu chuckled softly before it began getting to work by fixing up Tatsumi's crippled body as best as it could.

"Just don't go overboard ok?"

Everything had faded to black. The colour of the world reduced to nothing more than an endless expanse of all-consuming darkness, and no matter where Tatsumi turned to look, darkness stared back at him.

"Am- am I dead?" Tatsumi thought out loud, or it would have been if it weren't for the fact that the silence remained unbroken. Indeed, he could no longer hear his own voice, his words absorbed into the empty void surrounding him.

Tatsumi felt adrift. Weightless and alone. Hopelessly lost within an endless ocean of black. He looked about himself again, and towards the rest of his body - which he found he could see clearly despite there being no light whatsoever about him.

Oddly enough he didn't feel dead, but then again he didn't exactly know what being dead felt like, or at least he had no recollection of it, so he couldn't confidently rule it out. The fact that he had fallen unconscious in such a state earlier was also less than reassuring, as he contemplated the idea of whether or not he was, in fact, dead, a very succinct sensation crawled up the back of his neck.

It was at that moment Tatsumi didn't feel alone, and the thought terrified him beyond belief. Everything remained as silent as it had before, but it no longer felt like an empty void surrounded him. In fact, it was something akin to feeling a breeze on a still day, and a faint pressure on one side of his body caught his attention in particular.

Was something trying to speak to him? It didn't feel like wind, it wasn't a constant pressure, but a steadily fluctuating one which rose and fell, indeed it almost felt like...

Laughter?

Was someone laughing?

The very instant that idea crossed his mind Tatsumi felt a sickening lurch in his stomach as if something had just struck him in the chest, followed by the sensation of being dragged downwards to the ground.

The lack of light - or anything at all - made it difficult to tell whether or not he was in fact falling, but the sense of inertia wouldn't cease no matter how much he tried to ignore it. Perhaps what was even more strange, however, was the fact that the inertia was all that Tatsumi could feel. There was no sense of air rushing over him, no whistling of wind in his ears, only the strange pressure on his side and the inertia gripping his body.

What felt like an eternity passed by and still the sense that he was falling remained until suddenly Tatsumi felt his body collide with something solid. It was impossible to guess when he would land in the first place, and the sudden force acting on his unprepared body brought Tatsumi collapsing flat on the ground.

Tatsumi's head was a swimming mess and his chest still hurt like hell, but it was a far cry from anything he was feeling earlier, so Tatsumi took the reduction of pain as a good thing as he rolled over onto his back, the ground beneath turning out to be strangely soft…

It was then that Tatsumi saw it. Instantly, as if he had only just decided to open his eyes, the abyssal sea of black disappeared in a blinding explosion of golden light. Well, not so much an explosion, it was more like the light had been there all along, and it was only now that Tatsumi could see it as if someone had flicked on the light switch in a pitch-black room.

It was enough to make Tatsumi doubt whether or not he had forgotten to just open his eyes.

Surely not, Tatsumi reassured himself, but he couldn't find any other explanation for the sudden change. Did God himself just forget to turn the lights on when Tatsumi came here? Tatsumi quickly cast aside such useless thoughts, as he clearly had other things to worry about, such as where he had just ended up for example.

Thankfully, it didn't take Tatsumi long for his eyes to adjust to the light and immediately moved to study his surroundings, wary of anything that may come his way. He appeared to have arrived in a hall of sorts, one which seemed to beggar belief as it appeared to stretch on forever in a single direction, almost as though there was no end to it.

There didn't seem to be any furnishings to speak of, but the atmosphere itself had a familiar feel to it. Tatsumi knew it well, as the memory had been seared onto his soul.

"Throne room," Tatsumi affirmed confidently as he took in the sights around him.

An unending line of black plate armour filed the walls, they seemed to be standing guard. Each colossus of metal dwarfed any man - even General Budo would seem tiny compared to them - and all bore what would have been great weapons of war, each holding aloft mighty lances bearing a heraldry Tatsumi couldn't recognise, while mighty swords hung low by their sides.

Such titans would have inspired fear and awe in any who saw them if only were it not for their condition. Time had clearly taken its toll on these masterpieces, and there was not a single one which Tatsumi could see that was not as tarnished as it was mighty. Looking upon such ruin, Tatsumi felt something strangely familiar to heartbreak, the vision of such great works falling into disrepair was a tragedy in its own right.

Still, in the end, Tatsumi tore himself away from the empty shells of armour, still standing guard even after centuries of neglect, and took in the rest of his strange new surroundings.

The question of "How the hell did I end up here?" was still at the forefront of his mind, but Tatsumi's curiosity was getting the better of him, and why shouldn't it?

Tatsumi found himself studying the walls and floors, involuntarily taking in every sight that appeared before him, however, all that greeted his vision was ruin and decay, it seemed as though this world had been a glorious vision at one point in time, but now it could be described as little more than a haunting echo of what once was. It reminded Tatsumi of the Empire, in a way, slowly succumbing to decadence and decay as it's very core corrupts and rots away.

The walls and flooring were curious sights indeed and Tatsumi, and for once, found his attention glued to something that was neither female nor made of metal. They had a pattern that seemed to resemble the branches of burnt trees, cracked and blackened by soot and rot, while the spaces between them were lumpy and coated in black grime.

It seemed that the floors were the same, it was as if he were inside some fantasy kingdom of elves and fairies, except it had been sickened and burned to the ground, leaving behind this sad vision before him.

The once grand red carpet at his feet had been blackened by the soot and left to rot, and Tatsumi was quick to step off of the ruined cloth as he found it clinging to his soles, making a revolting tearing sound as he did so.

"And so the golden city was blackened, with each step you took in my halls. Marvel at perfection for it is fleeting, you have brought darkness to the heavens, and doom upon all the world..." A voice echoed through the hall, it sounded pained and strangely muted, as though the speaker was whispering through gritted teeth. Tatsumi whirled around to face the direction of the voice, but the sight that came before him made he wish that he hadn't.

Before him was a man.

A giant of a man, easily dwarfing even the colossal suits of armour lining the walls, was watching him while leaning back into what appeared to be a heavily tarnished golden throne, while his lengthy black hair masked much of his face as it drooped over his body and stopping just below his waist. If it was just that, then perhaps Tatsumi would only be surprised, but unfortunately for him, however, that wasn't all...

An endless torrent of barbed thorns swarmed over the man, many going so far as to bury themselves deep into his ashen flesh and causing the wounds they created to seep some kind of thick, black sap.

The mere sight of someone being ripped to pieces by countless barbed hooks was bad enough, but what made it that much worse was the fact that the poor man seemed completely unfazed by it all. Indeed, the man seemed completely clueless to the fact that his own flesh was being tethered to the ground by countless razor-sharp thorns and branches. He simply sat there watching him with a mixed expression of curiosity and a hint of what felt like disdain. It was as if he was disgusted by the fact that Tatsumi had even appeared here at all, yet had barely any idea as to why he was here either and was simply wondering why.

An uncomfortable silence descended between the two as both continued to study the other, thankfully, however, it did not last for very long, as with a deep sigh the man on the tarnished throne finally spoke.

"Welcome back, Tatsumi! I'll admit, I'm surprised to see you here so soon," he spoke amiably enough, however, Tatsumi could sense an immense irritation hidden behind his friendly tone.

It was as if he wanted to be furious, but something was holding him back, something Tatsumi would almost definitely expect to endure sometime later in the near future with a certain overweight individual. Tatsumi found himself slightly taken aback by the sudden break in the silence, however, his mind apparently being two steps behind everything else, as such it took more than a few seconds before Tatsumi could speak back.

"I've been here? Before?" he asked, obviously confused but attempting to mask it all the same. The ashen giant simply laughed in response, not at Tatsumi, however, neither did it seem to be directed at himself.

"I see. So that's it?" He asked as he stared up at the ceiling above. It was clear that his question wasn't aimed at Tatsumi, which of course just begged the question as to who he was talking to and perhaps more importantly, what he was talking about.

"Uhm... What are you talking about?" Tatsumi asked nervously, wondering exactly why he was so afraid of this thing that sat before him.

Regardless it seemed that he had regained the attention of the creature, which for some reason seemed to flit between feeling human and something else entirely at random. It, or rather, he turned his gaze back down towards Tatsumi below and the shame that came with it almost seemed to burn.

"You wonder why you feel shame," what he said was not a question, "It is because you have come back here, broken and ignorant of your crimes against your own soul, and you ask why?" His face cracked with that last word which just dripped hostility and malice, the veil of hair masking his face doing little to contain the aura of menace emanating from within.

"No, how about I ask you a question Tatsumi? Listen well now, because make no mistake..." The words dripped off the walls rather than from the body in front of him, and with them came a deep sense of unease.

It felt as if everything stood upon a razor's edge, and he was looking down into the abyss below.

"Everything that happens from here on out depends on your answer."

Tatsumi took a breath, awaiting the moment to come. It was all he could do now, that much was obvious. What was not obvious, however, was the question to follow, or the answer.

"What is life?" It asked, the voice barely a whisper amongst the now deafening silence of the halls.

Silence descended over the hall for several long seconds until Tatsumi spoke at last, although he still could not stifle his surprise, "Eh! How the hell am I supposed to answer that!? It's not possible!" He cried in disbelief.

"I could say the same to you," he replied straight back, "how are you not able to answer that question? Because last time I checked, you are alive, for the second time I might add."

"He has a point," Tatsumi thought to himself, "but how does anyone just answer that kind of question? It should be impossible, right?"

"So then why do you have an answer already?" The man asked, interrupting his thoughts and sending shivers down Tatsumi's spine, "I know, because it's the only reason you came back here of all places. You want to be able to use the armour despite knowing what it will do to you, and do you know why?"

Tatsumi didn't speak, or rather more accurately, he couldn't upon finding himself completely unable to reject what it was the man before him was implying. That there was something missing somewhere in his mind, which only sent his mind into overdrive obsessing over everything he could recall so far in search of some hint or clue to help him piece it all together.

In a flash, every event since he fell atop Esdeath's lifeless body, waking up on the road in the middle of the woods near his village, his time in the village with his friends, all of it swarmed into his mind at once. Every thought and every plan quickly followed, all the thngs he knew about his options were boiled down to their base components, eventually leaving only two truths. He still needed to save his village, and he could not join Night Raid, but that only asked the question as to why. Why was it that he couldn't join Night Raid? What made it so impossible for him to do so?

Tatsumi pondered this for the longest, but then the answer came to him, hitting him like a freight train.

"The Armour..." His voice was barely a whisper, an echo of his thoughts if nothing else.

The Armour was the reason, it must have been, there was no other reason for it, but what about it made joining Night Raid so unviable for him? The man in front of him didn't seem to keen on spilling the secret for him, which could only mean he was getting closer right?

"True enough," he said calmly, waiting patiently for Tatrsumi to give him his answer.

"So what is it about the armour that makes it so impossible?" Tatsumi asked tiredly, "It can't be because of my lack of control while wearing it, that's something i can just train for!"

The man just shook his head in response, "We both know that you know that isn't true. You already know why you can't control it, you just can't accept it because you'll have to admit to yourself that you will never have friends in Night Raid again."

Tatsumi shook his head violently in response, "You don't know that! You don't know them! If I can make them understand that I'm after the same things that they are then maybe I can still-" He would have continued but the man cut him off.

"-We both know what they'll think, you might be allies or even co-operative to eachother, but they will never be your friend. You love their greatest enemy after all!" The man laughed, but there was no joy in it, that much was clear.

Perhaps it was due to the lack of happiness in the man's voice, but Tatsumi couldn't bring himself to refute his assumptions. He knew his comrades, they wanted to make the Empire a better place and they were willing to kill and sacrifice themselves to do it. How could someone like that accept someone like himself? Someone who fell in love with the one person who was by far the largest obstacle to their goal.

"Life is cruel... Isn't it?" Tatsumi asked, his voice empty and cold.

"It truly is," the man replied with a deep, accepting sigh before stepping up off his throne and slowly down the steps.

Naturally, the sight was grisly and pure torture to behold, but Tatsumi just couldn't bring himself to care, it simply was what it was. In truth it felt like his own existence was hardly any different, as no matter what decision he could make, it would only serve to tear him apart. In the time it took for the first sound of his feet touching the steps to reach his ears, Tatsumi could already feel the man walking past him. Tatsumi never saw when he passed him, nor could he understand how the man could get behind him despite moving so slowly, but there he was regardless.

"Come with me," he said quietly, continuing his slowly, monotonous pace down the halls behind him.

Tatsumi said nothing, but proceeded to turn around and followed close behind, the man only nodded in response and resumed walking ahead without pause. The two of them continued to walk for quite some time before coming to an abrupt stop. At some point the two of them had turned a corner and had entered into a side passage leading into a small altar room.

The walls were much the same as before, but the floor was different, like it had been paved with cobblestone and engraved with strange symbols, most of which seemed to be centered around the edges of a large, deep basin, a pool of what appeared to be oil. Tatsumi stepped forwards into the strange room and instinctively peered into the pool, it was the only thing in the room after all, inside which seemed to reside some kind of red eel.

"Those aren't eels Tatsumi," the man explained, further reinforcing Tatsumi's belief that he could read his thoughts.

"Then what are they?" Tatsumi didn't bother asking, he didn't particularly care. He was too pre-occupied by the fact that his armour, the very tool he had to create his second chance in the first place, was turning out to be the very thing stopping him from achieving it, although it had not yet been explained exactly why.

"Something you're really going to start hating very soon," he answered with a dark chuckle, "Now step into the pool and we can begin to correct your mindset and your ability to use the armour."

"What's going to happen?" Tatsumi asked warily as he peered in at the strange red tendrils snaking their way around the oily pool.

"Life is cruel Tatsumi," the man explained solemnly, "Even after coming back from the dead your situation has only grown worse. It may have left you with hope, let you see your long lost home, your friends and family, it has given you another chance where none existed.

"But in return it has left you without options, unable to use any teigu other than the one that you cannot hope to master. As I said, life is cruel, but it is not unnecesarily so. It has given us the tools to forge ahead, but in return we will have to extract an even more terrible price from you."

Something was strange. Why was he telling him about this if there was no other option? That was what bothered Tatsumi the most. He could only guess why he wasn't simply ordered to go through with it, was it something to do with how it would affect their relation to eachother?

"More or less," The man answered, "What we are going to have to make you do is tantamount to torture in its most brutal form, you'll probably understand more if you go into this willingly and without hesitation."

Which is why he's being so unnaturally informative? Tatsumi thought to himself. The man nodded and gestured to the pool.

"Step inside when you believe you're ready," he spoke with the look of a doctor waiting on a patient, all the while knowing it was his only option.

Still, Tatsumi couldn't help but hesitate at the waters edge. The tendrils of red seemed to sense his agitation and their movements only grew more frantic with each passing second like sharks smelling blood in the water. Terror gripped at his chest as he stood staring into the depths below him, what horrors would he see in there? What torment awaited him beneath the surface? How much longer would he wait before diving in?

Tatsumi's answer finally came the moment he felt the slight breeze in his face, followed by the surreal rush of oil rushing into his ears, mouth and nose. He had dove in before he knew it. Soon everything had turned to a dark, viscous black before him and Tatsumi was reminded suddenly about the scene which greeted him when he first arrived. The countless wounds revealing blackened flesh and blood. With nothing else on his mind Tatsumi couldn't help but wonder what the reason behind the thorns actually was, and out the blackness a voice emerged. It was distorted but oddly clear at the same time, and felt as though it was coming from various points at once, though Tatsumi rationalised it as being due to being inside the oil.

"Oh... So that's what you saw? I was waiting for you to ask about that... How interesting," The voice replied slowly, it was masculine but utterly inhuman, and it seemed as if he was discerning some hidden meaning behind what Tatsumi saw.

"You must have had a very strong sense of right and wrong before you came here Tatsumi. At least, until your heart was torn from your chest and ripped to pieces before your very eyes..."

Silence soon descended around him, the reverberations of his voice had ceased, and in that single instant Tatsumi's heart had sunk into the deepest recesses of his chest. Upon hearing just those words alone Tatsumi understood what it was he would be facing immediately. Now knowing what was to come, all Tatsumi could hope was that whatever he'll gain from this would be more than worth what was to come, and as the red tendrils began emerging from the shadowy depths Tatsumi could only resign himself, close his eyes and wait, and wait and wait until...

The world flashed into existence.

The Revolution was coming to an end at last!

With every member of its groups either dead or deserting the Empire's most powerful warriors were now out of the picture, and with the Freedom Fighters now equipped with as many Teigu as possible, the imperial forces were now little more than scattered remnants fleeing through the Capital's streets.

That wasn't all, with General Budo having been defeated shortly after Tatsumi's execution, all that remained in the way of Teigu users were the Emperor himself and of course, Esdeath. Neither of which had been seen in the fighting and the fact that the battle maniac of a general being nowhere to be seen was, while an absolute godsend for the war effort, incredibly unnerving.

"What was going on?" Najenda had had that look on her face for a while now as the remaining members of Night Raid carved their way through the remaining palace guards, who at this point were little more than a pathetic last minute resistance.

The same couldn't be said for the rest of the group, however, with Leone and Tatsumi being the most optimistic of them all, while Mine simply continued to argue with them, or Tatsumi to be more specific, the entire way to - and through - the Palace. Even tough Akame was still in assassination mode, there was little doubt that at least half of her concentration was slowly turning to which meat she wanted to eat for dinner later.

In short, none of them were truly taking this seriously despite the fact that Esdeath was nowhere to be seen, though it was also because of this that everyone seemed to relax, even more so now that they reached the final set of doors before the throne room.

Perhaps she had simply moved on to bloodier pastures? Tatsumi hoped this was the case, he certainly wasn't looking forward to facing her, although Najenda had a sort of desperate look on her face. Disappointment?

"Hey, boss! You ok?" Leone called out, stealing the words fom Tatsumi's mouth, it seemed she had picked up on it as well. Najenda simply sighed in response, or perhaps she hadn't heard Leone calling her, Tatsumi couldn't tell which it was but the boss clearly wasn't acting like her usual self.

"B-Boss?" Tatsumi attempted to grab her attention again, something wasn't right.

"Hm? What is it?" Najenda replied suddenly sounding alert, although it could have just as easily been surprise if nothing else.

"You seem to be spacing out, you ok?" Leone cut in before Tatsumi could even get the words out of his mouth.

"I-I'm fine, it's just..." The boss trailed off into silence again.

"You're looking for the beloved General right? She isn't here, if she was we would have seen her by now. You know her best after all, if she wasn't here at the start, she wasn't here at all!" Mine broke the silence and despite herself, she had a point.

Esdeath was far from the kind of woman to run from a fight, if she were here at all, then she would have appeared right from the start.

That being said, however, if she wasn't to be found here, then where else could she be?

That thought sent a chill down Tatsumi's spine, but at the same time, it also sent a pang of warmth through his chest.

"What the hell was that?" Tatsumi spoke out loud thoughtlessly.

"Tatsumi? What was what about?" Najenda asked she was probably concerned that he might have noticed something.

"Ah! It's nothing Boss! It's just... I'm not sure what just came over me. Just-" He explained as best he could, but was interrupted by a mighty crash.

"Enough waiting around! Let's finish this already!"

"Ah," Tatsumi thought, "it was Leone. She must have gotten impatient with all the standing around doing nothing and broke down the door, along with a great deal of the wall around it."

"Well, here we go!" Mine yelled out as she followed Leone through the dust, quickly followed by Akame, who only gave a quick nod before disappearing through the hole in the wall, leaving Najenda and Tatsumi to pick up the pace and join the rest of them in the throne room...

They never stood a chance.

The moment they broke down the doors and flooded into the throne room was the moment all time seemed to stop.

The scene which lay before them was one no-one could have expected. The outcome which Tatsumi - along with most of Night Raid - expected, was one in which they found the Prime Minister cowering behind the throne. There was a little debate over whether or not he could actually fit behind it, but that was the basic idea, and the plan was to beat him half to death before dragging him out to a public execution - probably a stoning or public beating, such were the levels of his countless crimes against the Empire.

The first thing Tatsumi noticed was the fat man's face. It was stained with red, and the Demonic mark had covered the whole of his face, which seemed torn between an ecstatic glee and a mad terror.

Tatsumi didn't have to wait long before finding out what had happened to her. Glancing to the side, he could see her body hung lifelessly beside the throne, while the child Emperor was skewered to it.

Honest - or what remained of him - made the first move, firing an unrelenting barrage of ice spears towards them, but everyone managed to get out of the way. Everyone except Najenda and Tatsumi, who were unable to accept the reality before them and tear themselves away from the almost lifeless body of Esdeath. Before anyone could do anything, the two of them found themselves on the receiving end of the lethal bombardment.

While Tatsumi was able to deflect most of the initial projectiles thrown at the two of them with the use of his halberd, the rain of ice never ceased and through the sheer weight of numbers, he was steadily pushed back as fatigue set in.

The stream of death made it impossible for those who made it out of the way to do anything to help, the only thing they could do was stop it at the source.

The momentary lapse in the river of ice caused by their distraction wasn't anywhere near enough, however, and the fresh shards broke past his guard.

The sound of ice striking metal rang out from behind him, followed by a pained groan. There was little Tatsumi could do to help the general behind him further than what he was already doing.

Out of the corner of his eyes, Tatsumi could see the others making their move at last. They raced forwards towards the possessed Honest.

Mine fired Pumpkin at point-blank range to clear the way, while Leone and Akame simply punched and slashed their way forwards through the ice, ignoring any of the projectiles thrown at them.

Everything they did to clear their way, however, seemed completely pointless before the sheer volumes of ice that Honest had summoned. Pumpkin's blast was met with a wall of ice, while hands of ice appeared from thin air around Akame and Leone, grabbing at their limbs in an effort to slow them down and allow them to be whittled down by the shards like with Tatsumi and Najenda behind them, and all the while a thick blanket of icy mist slowly gathered around the hall.

In short, it wasn't looking good. Honest was more than just holding off the four Teigu users before him, he was dominating them.

The sheer variety of attacks and defences committed to them at once was staggering, not to mention overwhelming, and they only increased in their intensity as time dragged on until...

Silence.

It all ended just like that.

One final move ended it all in an instant, and a maniacal laughter erupted from the centre of it all, a ghastly scream broke out shortly after.

All of it came from the same man.

Akame, Leone and Mine lay scattered about the room, what was left of them anyway.

A thick mass of red pooled the ground where they once stood.

Leone still remained conscious, the regenerative effects of her Teigu preventing her from bleeding out straight away from the countless wounds on what was left of her body. Her wordless expression of agony said far more than her screams ever could, but she wouldn't last much longer.

Meanwhile, Akame and Mine seemed far more fortunate in that regard, having died instantly they had been spared having to endure the pain that followed.

Tatsumi could only stand there, his heart ripped apart. He wouldn't break down though, no, he had come too far to give in to grief. Tatsumi turned back to Najenda who still stood behind him, he needed orders, his heart was too chaotic to make any rational decisions and he knew it.

"Boss? What should we do?" he asked in desperation, but he heard no words in reply.

A brief look back explained her silence.

He was alone. Everyone was dead or dying around him, and the cause of it all was right there in front of him.

Tatsumi charged forwards, howling with the rage and loss in his heart, but then he saw something.

Someone was moving in the corner of his eye.

"Esdeath..." Tatsumi stopped and turned to race towards her.

Why am I doing this? He thought.

Honest was right there, so why didn't he try to kill him? Tatsumi kept moving regardless, however, even as a hail of ice flew towards him.

Tatsumi didn't stop and instead began picking up speed as he raced closer towards the throne.

Tatsumi passed the bodies of his fallen comrades, the raving madman of a Prime Minister, the throne and the bloody corpse of the late Emperor, only barely stopping in order to save the almost lifeless woman before him.

Why was he doing this?

The pain in his chest revealed why...

He had nothing left to lose...

He was already dead...

He was almost out of time...

Both of them were...

Tatsumi could do nothing except watch on as his own final moments played out before his eyes. He stared on in abject horror as he witnessed the light die in his eyes as the Tatsumi before him let out a final, wordless roar that carried with it all of his unspoken hatred, grief and pain. It echoed out into the air before ebbing away into silence, and the world seemed to stand still as Tatsumi saw himself fall lifelessly, like a puppet with its strings cut. That was it. His final moments ended in silence, and everything he ever stood for ended along with him.

Tears ran unbidden from Tatsumi's face at the scene before him, not from witnessing his own death, but at the realisation that all of his past struggles, all of the sacrifices, all of the people who gave up their lives for the cause.

All of it meant nothing in the end...

More notes from you know who:

I think it was around the 2nd attempt at this that I wanted Tatsumi to have a real demoralising experience, at first I thought I should just add in some gore and carnage, but I changed my mind... Again, and again and again until at last I reached the limits of what I wanted and attempted to patch it all together, which coalesced into that botch job that I call chapter 4.4

Another 4 "serious" re-attempts later and here is where I'm at! That's 8 attempts there, 8! Do you know how many times I looked at this in my folder and just thought "Why do I bother with this?" I spent so much time just looking at paragraph after paragraph, word upon word, hating every single second of it! At least, that is until I look at all of the comments, the suggestions and excitement from you guys and I just feel guilty for being so down on myself and preventing you guys from enjoying the story you came here for. I don't know how many chapters I've scrapped getting to where I am now, it's probably well into the twenties I'll be honest, and I don't know how many more it'll have to be either!

But it'll be worth it.

Talk to you later!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes from Author:**

It's here!

Yes, you heard right! Chapter... Uhh 5? 5 is here!

Now don't get overly excited, but there is more on the way and I should have it a lot easier with this new chapter release. It makes it a lot easier to handle the pacing if you know what I mean. There's a little over 5,000 words and the next one should be about the same, so there's probably enough to tide you guys over right? Well, I hope there is anyway!

So for those of you who read my ramblings, I won't keep you anymore! Enjoy!

* * *

 **Chapter 5: The Wake**

Hero...

The word disgusted him. It was the name of a coward who couldn't bear to be wrong, the name of a child who couldn't grow up, who could never understand the fact that in this world there never was a black or white.

It was an evil word.

A sickening emptiness festered in Tatsumi's heart, now little more than a lead weight in his chest with hardly the strength to carry on with its ever-more arduous task.

"What else was there to be said?" he wondered. They had failed, completely and utterly, even with all their good intentions and all their sacrifices. Despite all of their efforts, they had failed.

His childhood dream of becoming a champion of justice echoed in his mind, viciously driving its way into his already ruined heart like venom in his veins, filling what little remained with shame and regret. Tatsumi turned his sight back to his past-self, collapsed atop a lifeless Esdeath. Anger began to flare up from within him, albeit only briefly, as it was quickly overshadowed, snuffed out by the overwhelming sense of hollow and bitter defeat. Sullen silence soon fell upon his mind as Tatsumi stared down at the epitome of failure that lay broken before him, and as he did so, questions slowly coalesced to fill the void his despondent spirit had left behind.

What was his excuse? What could he tell himself to make the disappointment go away?

Would he try to absolve himself of guilt? Tell himself that he was only trying to help? To be the hero he always wanted to be?

Tatsumi scoffed at that.

This was meant to be a hero?

A bitter laugh escaped his lips as Tatsumi withdrew further into his morose line of questions. Orcus's warning couldn't have been truer. This nightmarish hell that he had found himself in was perhaps worse than any trial he had ever faced and still it was not yet complete. But there was still more to follow, there was always more. The lesson that he needed had not yet come, and until it did Tatsumi would be left alone to stew in his own soul-crushing madness. For now, however, Tatsumi could do little else but watch and endure as he continued to observe a world in which he no longer drew breath, a world in which no-one he had grown to love and cherish could live on. With his death, his home village was doomed to starvation and the cruel mercies of the countless bandits and Danger Beasts that prowled the wilderness surrounding it.

Tatsumi wondered why it was that he needed to see all this. What purpose did it serve other than to antagonise and torture him? He wondered why it was that he had to suffer to such a cruel extent. He wondered what made this hell any different from every other tragedy to befall the world anywhere else.

"Why me?"

The words were little more than rasp whispers escaping from his lips, barely daring to echo the one question which plagued his soul the most.

There was no reply, however. All that would answer his questions, it seemed, was silence. Trapped and helpless, Tatsumi was left with no options other than to wait and hope that perhaps something would change and that maybe, just maybe it would hold the answers which he so desperately sought...

But of course nothing would be so convenient, and so Tatsumi sighed as the world remained silent and still, utterly devoid of any signs of life. All Tatsumi could see were the empty streets and ruined homes lined with the many mangled dead which surely covered the entirety of the Capital by now. Tatsumi waited further, growing ever more desperate for some kind of sign, anything which could allow him an escape from this hellish dream, yet still, nothing came.

"There must be something," Tatsumi told himself, "There has to be something!"

There couldn't simply be nothing, of that Tatsumi had become wholly, desperately convinced, and so he waited even further, peering out into the distance in the hope that something, anything might eventually come to light. There was no sign of the revolutionary army, no movement amongst the wreckage, and despite the scale of the assault and the number of ruined buildings scattered amongst the city, there were no signs of fire - not even smoke. Tatsumi hung his head in defeat, collapsing to his knees as he slammed his fist down into the cracked pavement beneath him.

What lesson could be learned here? Tatsumi begged himself to find an answer before he lost what little of his mind he had left.

An eye flickered back to the two bodies before him, and Tatsumi's fist once more found itself slamming into the pavement below, violently denying the brief flicker of thought and banishing it back into the depths of his mind with a sickening crack. This denial, however, only meant that said thought had taken root, and as his mind was driven further into a corner the answer only came back louder.

Eventually, inevitably, after countless failed attempts to silence his own mind, Tatsumi had to allow his thoughts to turn back to his past-self and Esdeath, there was simply nowhere else he could go and nothing he could do, his arms were a mangled mess of flesh and bone though that hardly mattered to Tatsumi in the slightest. His heart sank into his chest, reaching a low he never thought possible, yet there was a glimmer of hope within even this. Perhaps this scene held some secret to figuring out what it was that he needed? Tatsumi could only hope.

With no other options, Tatsumi summoned what fragments of will he still had left and cast a glance down at the two bodies lying at his feet. He had no qualms about seeing his own corpse, having already lost any shred of respect for his past self, but Esdeath was another matter entirely.

Within the brief amount of time that had passed since their "escape" from the imperial palace, the wound which had ultimately cost Tatsumi his life had continued to gush forth blood, painting everything beneath it a deep, dark crimson and the body of Esdeath below was no exception. In all the time Tatsumi had known her, he could not recall a single moment when her uniform was anything but a pristine white, but now there was hardly a single stitch which had managed to remain unblemished. The same could be said about her hair as well, yet Tatsumi barely noticed this at all, having diverted all of his attention towards a single, tiny detail, which on anyone else would have been practically non-existent, but on Esdeath couldn't be farther from the case.

The single tear hanging just above her cheek. It was perhaps the first - and last - tear she had ever shed in her entire life. Tatsumi found himself transfixed by the tiny droplet, not for the fact that there would never be anything like it again, it was for something else entirely. The tear was still. Very still. It should have continued to roll down her face before falling towards the ground. It should have done so long before Tatsumi even noticed it, yet there it was, almost frozen in place.

"Frozen..." Tatsumi pondered the word for a few moments once the gears of his mind finally began to turn and eventually a single word managed to escape Tatsumi's lips.

"Mahapadma?"

Esdeath's trump card; a power which froze all of space and time itself solid with the exception of its user. Tatsumi felt his heart soar as a flicker of hope stirred up from the depths of his heart. It did not last, however, as a question from his mind threw cold water over the notion that Esdeath was perhaps still alive. She wasn't moving. If she was indeed using the power then the tear would surely also be unaffected. It had to be someone else and there was only one person who came to mind. Immediately Tatsumi's blood boiled at the very thought of the man, but even so, Tatsumi's mind still remained swamped with questions that simply had to be answered.

Was this the reason why he was brought back? That didn't make any sense, even Esdeath could only use this power briefly before having to relent, even if Honest had frozen the world how was this any different than any time before? Nothing about this situation made any kind of sense and the incessant questions entering his mind only confounded Tatsumi further.

Suddenly an intense sense of inertia gripped his stomach and yet again Tatsumi's confusion was given reason to escalate even further. His vision began to blur and distort as he felt his body dragged back by some unseen force. The Capital, what was left of it, passed him by in a blur, but even so, the devastation was clear to see and Tatsumi was almost thankful that he didn't have the time to make out the details, but a looming sense of dread still grew within him. He had already seen enough to fuel his nightmares for a lifetime - or two, in his case - and the last thing he needed was even more fuel for the fire.

That, however, was exactly what he was getting it seemed, as Tatsumi found himself before what was perhaps the latest and greatest addition to his collection. He now stood once again at the crux of his past. The aftermath of his own failures laid bare before him, and it was a gruesome vision indeed.

Blood and viscera caked what remained of the walls and floor, permeating the air with their thick, cloying odours to the point where even a slight metallic taste began coating the tip of his tongue and an acidic burn stung at his eyes. Tatsumi baulked as his mind finally registered the taste of those he once called his friends.

For a moment Tatsumi thought back to all of the craziest people he had ever met. He wondered why they were who they were and what must have happened to them to bend their minds so out of shape.

"What does that mean for me?"

Tatsumi shook himself away from the thought, turning his gaze back to the sight before him and towards the one responsible for it all.

There, at the centre stood the object of all Tatsumi's wrath and fury, shrieking and cackling in flits of both agony and glee, utterly consumed by the madness of the Demon's Blood. There was little, if anything, left of the man Tatsumi abhorred beyond all others, in more ways than one. No longer in a state fit to be called human, it's once grotesque and bloated form now paled in comparison to even that of a ragged beggar. Barely even skeletal, its muscles tearing themselves apart simply to sustain the minuscule weight of its desiccated body.

The seemingly constant use of its powers had clearly taken a toll upon its body - to say nothing of the mind - but even so, some remnants of the coward seemed to have remained as the remnants of Honest suddenly began moving with purpose once again, as colossal pillars of ice began to sprout along the walls of the palace, sealing every entrance and opening caused by the prior conflict in a canopy of ice, with himself at the centre.

"Why was it doing such a thing?" Tatsumi wondered, struggling to comprehend the reason, if there even was one in the first place, that he was seeing this transpire, and he would struggle even further as Honest began focusing his attention on sealing himself away as well.

"Nothing about this makes any kind of sense," Tatsumi thought to himself, "Even if the Mahapadma was somehow permanent, if Honest's body was frozen solid, then his body would simply die and that would be the end of it... Right?"

Tatsumi pondered over it further, observing with seething rage as the scene played out before him, and as the ice grew past the shoulders and the neck, Tatsumi recalled the fact that Teigu adapted to fit their users. If Honest was the coward that Tatsumi thought he was, then couldn't the demon's blood take on a more protective role? If this was the case here then what Tatsumi was witnessing wasn't a suicide, but rather a desperate act of-

"Preservation."

With a single word, the pieces slowly fell into place. Where once there had only been unanswerable questions, now there were explanations, reasons, traction, tiny fingerholds for his mind to grasp and begin the slow climb back to normalcy and towards the answers this place so wished for him to find. His mind worked overtime, conjuring up as many scenarios as it could whose consequences were dire enough that even the cruellest and most sadistic of Gods would have to intervene until at last something clicked into place.

What would be the consequence of Honest's preservation? Time and Space itself were frozen solid by the power of this never-ending Mahapadma, the only one who could release it having sealed himself away like the evil, senseless coward he always was. The whole world was left to stagnate, unable to even rot, and there was no way for anyone left to undo what had been done. In the face of this realisation, this revelation, Tatsumi only laughed coldly.

It served them right to find their ends this way. Those were Tatsumi's honest thoughts of the ones who allowed this to happen. These so-called "Gods" that were so content to watch humanity tear itself apart in cruellest ways it could imagine, were now left entirely at the mercy of a madman they allowed to exist.

It was utterly hilarious.

His laughter continued even whilst he watched on helplessly as a half-dead Honest finally completed his demented task, the icy prison sealing him away and dooming the world to stagnation and irrelevancy. The madman's dissonant, echoing cries of torment and jubilation almost merged with Tatsumi's own volcanic laughter before they finally ceased, leaving the world silent and unchanging save for Tatsumi's own cachinnations, until that too died down to nothingness. It was in this new silence that, for the briefest of moments, Tatsumi wondered if this was where he could, at last, awaken from this strange, hellish dream. At least, that was until his vision was consumed by a light blinding enough to burn away all traces of thought.

Unprepared and thus unable to blink, let alone shield his eyes in time to save himself, Tatsumi stared out at a world of light, over-saturated with colour as his scorched eyes slowly recovered from the assault on his senses and even began to adapt to this new vision before him. In the span of a few moments, the canvas of light gave way to golden hues visible even behind the stream of tears pouring out of Tatsumi's searing eye sockets, and as these rivers of pain subsided, Tatsumi's vision came into focus all manner of shapes and shadows began to decorate his surroundings. By the end of it all, before very his eyes an entire world had formed, comprised of golden light, and it was beautiful beyond the confines of pitiful mortal words.

Grand arches supported vaulted ceilings decorated with intricate golden carvings detailing vines of Ivy entwined amongst motifs of animal and human alike. Meanwhile Wolfen-headed braziers of jet-black cast flickering shadows upon the chiselled brick pillars on which they were held, illuminating the magnificent silver sentinels stationed amongst the many alcoves amongst the walls. just as before in Orcus's palace, Tatsumi found himself irresistibly drawn to such items almost immediately, even more so now, as he didn't dare to allow an opportunity to distract himself from his torments pass him by.

"I can be allowed that much, right?" Tatsumi asked no-one in particular as he began appraising the massive constructs, his spine-tingling as he neared them. The air itself seeming to hum and crackle around them in a way Tatsumi had never felt before. Not even from legends like his own Incursio, which almost seemed to scream at his very soul with a single touch, could even come close.

There was only one place Tatsumi could think of that could explain such sights but there was a myriad of differences. For example, the chiselled stone hardly resembled the rotten oak that he had seen earlier, and the practically fungal flooring from earlier was instead replaced by a material similar to the ceilings above, cut into slabs and laid into angled interlocking tiles to create a beautifully simple mosaic combining seamlessly into the rest of the hall.

Needless to say, Tatsumi's mind was drawing as many connections as possible, piecing together the possible reasons behind this new vision, even as he desperately tried to lose himself amongst the countless awe-inspiring sights and sensations surrounding him. There was no doubt in his mind, however, that this was still a part of his test, and there was also no doubt in his mind about exactly where he had now found himself. Rotten oak had given way to chiselled stone, whilst fungal flooring had been replaced by angled interlocking tiles to create intricate mosaic imagery across the floor. The only real question Tatsumi had, however, was why these two visions were so different from one another, but where once his questions had simply fallen on deaf ears, Tatsumi now had the suspicion that he would now have to learn a little more than he'd like.

As Tatsumi began his study of the latest weapon before him - a long-handled blade that almost rivalled a polearm with its sheer size, with a very pronounced forward curve towards the tip - a faint whisper could be heard from somewhere down the hall to his left. It was quickly followed by another, though the words were hardly distinguishable over the slight echoes rebounding from the walls. Tatsumi, realising this was as good a sign as any, decided it would be best to tear himself away from the grandeur of the hallway and advance closer to the mysterious whispers coming from somewhere further down the hall, listening in as much as he could along the way. Eventually, the voices began to become clear, and they were most certainly not whispering.

As Tatsumi began his study of the latest weapon to find itself in his hands - an almost archaic looking weapon, with particularly curious proportions given to handle and the blade, leading Tatsumi to wonder at how it was used - a faint whisper could be heard from down the hall to his left. It was quickly followed by another, but between the distance and when the slight echoes began rebounding from the walls, the words became impossible to make out. If Tatsumi wanted to make any sense of the conversation currently taking place he would have to get closer, and if the feeling in his gut was correct, he did. It didn't take long until Tatsumi could begin to make out parts of the conversation and it was only growing clearer with every step he took.

"Well, what did you expect would happen?" A voice remarked with an immeasurable level of coldness in its voice as if the very conversation it was in had already lost its interest.

"Not this!" Replied another, far more agitated voice, "Who could possibly expect them to-?"

"-Tell me," the first voice interrupted, "What exactly was your sphere was again?"

Tatsumi frowned, perplexed as to what the voice meant by 'sphere', "What did a sphere have to do with anything?" He wondered. He had never heard it as a term before, let alone could he know what exactly it was they were talking about, though he guessed it was due to Honest's final act that he'd witnessed hardly a moment ago, it seemed as good a reason as any. Why else would he be brought here?

"Is that supposed to be a joke? You know we never interfere with the natural order-!"

"-And look where it's gotten you." The other voice interrupted with no small amount of apathy.

"It's nice to see you so fearless for a change Creature." The second voice remarked with no small amount of venom and spite, "Tell me, how easy was it for you to actually come here, knowing that you're the one who stood to gain the most from all this?"

That caught Tatsumi's attention, his pace quickened, making sure that he didn't miss a single word.

"Be careful where you throw your accusations Orcus! I hope you haven't forgotten that you still need my help unless of course, you actually want you and your realm to be torn asunder? How many had to fall before you turned to me?"

So this was their cause for alarm? Tatsumi thought to himself, before almost tripping as his mind registered who it was the first voice was talking to. The chance to see what Orcus looked like before he fell into ruin was almost too much to pass up, and so Tatsumi broke out into a sprint. He clearly still had time before this place would change for the worse.

"You're actually enjoying this aren't you?" Orcus asked incredulously.

"Not in the slightest!" Creature retorted.

"Is that so?"

"Of course!" Creature replied though it's tone made it difficult to know if that was entirely true, "And what did I say about you and your accusations!?"

"What does it matter in the first place?" Orcus rebuked. "The real question is how are we going to go about solving this?" He roared, his voice accompanied by a thunderous boom which sent reverberations throughout the hall.

"How about the boy?" Creature suggested, "He already has a vested interest after all."

"Were they talking about me?" Tatsumi wondered aloud. It made sense, or at the very least Tatsumi couldn't think of anyone else who had been ripped from the grip of death and thrown backwards in time, after all, assuming that was what they were talking about, although there was obviously a lot that he didn't know. Either way, Tatsumi picked up the pace.

"I'd rather use the strongest, but they're far too vested in their own interests to be of much use." Orcus complained, "The boy it is then."

"It'll be a challenge." Creature admitted, "His body will probably be too weak at first, but we'll manage... I think."

Tatsumi, at last, found his way to the source of the voices, breaking through the obscuring ethereal glow that concealed the distant hallway and practically leaping off of the ground with every step as he made his way towards a sight he did not expect. A door of all things, if such a word could be used to describe a structure of such magnitude, all that Tatsumi could even possibly compare them to were the massive ceremonial doors of grand cathedrals or the mighty gates to the Imperial Palace, yet even they were not much of a comparison. Such mortal constructs simply could not compare to what stood before him now.

Surrounded on all sides by elegant argent supports, the door itself sat elevated atop a series of giant stone slabs, which from the sheer distance Tatsumi was standing would have almost looked like a normal staircase were it not for the cryptic runes engraved upon them, glowing brightly in the braziers blazing beside them. The sight was so stunning that it took several moments before Tatsumi could actually take notice of the two giants arguing beneath it.

"You think!?" Orcus roared in disbelief, "Don't you think you could at least try to put my mind at rest a little?"

The first to speak resembled a man who had built himself from the ground up but forgot to stop. Standing at least 18 feet from head to toe with a solid, sinewy build which made it hard to judge exactly how strong he truly was. He was sat atop one of the steps with an expression of bitterness and disgust overshadowed by more than a hint of fear, which struck Tatsumi as being incredibly out of place on his stern looking face. Another striking feature that he couldn't help but notice was man's lack of eyes, which had seemingly been replaced by a ghastly scar spread across his face. Aside from that, however, the man seemed fairly normal, completely unlike the Orcus which Tatsumi had come to know.

"Don't be so ridiculous Orcus! Where would be the fun in that?" Creature laughed, clearly unfazed by the raging giant before it.

The second of the two, Creature as it appeared to be called, was unlike anything Tatsumi had ever seen, a fact that was at once both a near-miracle whilst remaining utterly unsurprising. Formed from an intangible morass of darkness which almost seemed to strain within its barely humanoid frame, every fibre of its being seemingly flickering in and out of existence at random, practically mocking the very reality in which it stood. To say it exuded an air of mockery would be an understatement, Tatsumi almost felt himself being forcefully compelled to hate it, every second he spent in its presence felt like an insult to everything he was and that this Creature knew it.

"You already know the answer, Creature..." Orcus replied, his words still retaining as much of their venom despite Creature's obvious taunts, "You'll have more than enough fun without trying to torment the rest of us."

"You aren't wrong..." The 'Creature' agreed, tilting its head back to the side before a crack tore across its face to form a ghoulish grin, "Besides, this is going to be a tonne of fun already!"

The giant opposite did not respond, however, though even from where Tatsumi stood, the brief flicker of concern crossing his face was almost painfully clear to see, and prompted one of the most ear-splitting cackles that Tatsumi ever had the misfortune of hearing from the demented wraith, however, what followed thereafter was something on another level altogether.

It began with a tiny rumbling, like the steady breathing of an old home, so utterly unnoticeable between the grandeur and the argument between giants, but as their dialogue came to a close it grew in volume and intensity to match or in its place. So it was that the moment Creature started its cacophonous laugh, it was in turn followed by an earthshaking quake. The gigantic slabs that composed the doors were shaken free from their supports. Plumes of dust choked the hall, but the shadow of the door crashing down upon the oversized giant was impossible to miss, and Tatsumi scarcely had time to gasp and choke, let alone react, before a thunderous explosion blasted the clouds clear, revealing shattered stone, ruptured metal and a single colossal giant standing above it all. Tatsumi didn't have time to stand in awe, however, as there was a reason why that door had collapsed in the first place.

Beyond the colossal mountain of rubble and the wreckage, beyond stood a solid mass of darkness beyond the residual wisps of rock lingering in the air.

Beyond the colossal mountain of rubble and wreckage, beyond the titan of a man amidst it - still standing tall despite the ridiculous weight that had come down upon him - beyond It all lay the real horror. A looming mass of writhing blackness stood ready to flood into the hall, with seemingly thousands of strange appendages snaking their way around the void the door had left behind. Perhaps it was using them as feelers, as only a split-second later it surged forward in a black morass tide devouring everything and everyone, although there was one exception.

Orcus was the first to fall victim to the tsunami of darkness, hitting him like a solid wall rather than a liquid, his oversized form offering practically nothing in the way of resistance as he was tossed forwards like a giant ragdoll by several of the so-called "sensory appendages" as they wrapped around whatever they could get a hold of.

Creature, on the other hand, seemed to be completely untroubled by the Eldritch horror. In fact, the mass appeared to take great efforts to avoid it, visibly parting around them only to crash into one of the stone supports beyond. It's massive bulk slammed into the polished stone, the force of the blow toppling the structure with only momentary resistance before more of the monster's appendages took notice and removed it. Countless limbs tore into the structure with contemptuous ease before ripping it from the ground and tossing it aside like everything else that stood in its way.

Nothing seemed to stop it for more than a split second before simply during forward once again, and even more of the monster's mass poured in through the breach. Tatsumi, having no idea how to process the events taking place before him, simply decided to continue observing, it would reach the walls to its sides before himself, and there wasn't any reason in particular why he should fear it. This whole place was a vision of the past, he wasn't technically here. He couldn't interact with the objects he observed, not really, he could position himself to get a better view but that was it. As such, he watched on. Though it couldn't be said that he wasn't completely unaffected by the sight of the black mass continuously crawling closer in order to fill as much open space in the hall as possible.

Everything was consumed without distinction, from the alcoves with their sterling sentinels, which now served only to fill the air with shearing metal and crumbling of stone, to even the endless vines of Ivy entwined amongst motifs of animal and humans decorating the vaulted ceiling hundreds of feet above. All of it had been swallowed by the black, and now Tatsumi stood at the brink of this wave of darkness, a mere blink away from being swallowed himself, but even now, he hadn't moved an inch.

Was it because he believed this place to be a mere figment of the mind? A dream?

No.

The reason wasn't anything complicated as a deduction through reason or even so much as a calculated risk.

No.

He was merely afraid.

* * *

Afterword:

Pretty Spoopy, huh?

Well, I hope we're all hyped for the next part of this chapter! Oh, that's right, I forgot to mention this is going to come in two parts I suppose, so to those of you who couldn't help but notice that this chapter is shorter than usual, this is the reason. I needed a convenient cut-off point to continue from and I didn't want to leave you guys hanging for any longer! I'm a pretty nice guy aren't I? ;P

Either way, I'm gonna start working on this next part right away. Looking forward to hearing what you guys thought about this chapter, all the new questions, developments, etc. Sure it's all continuing from the nightmare dimension thing, so to some, it might be slow, but unless you haven't noticed already, my pacing isn't exactly fast.

I guess I'll talk to you soon then! Ciao!


	6. Update

Hi guys, sorry about the long absence again, I'm starting a new course in accounting, hearing about interviews for trainee positions and so on and so forth. I'm also having difficulty making sure the changes to the chapter I'm working on actually persist after saving them, which has been frustrating to the point that I genuinely stopped trying after the 8th attempt. But I'm back, using offline the offline copies which I'm transferring between my home computer and my college account.

I've discovered I don't like how I'm portraying Tatsumi in the current chapter so making changes to how I do that may take some time, but I'll be back in action shortly, that much I can guarantee.


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